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Since this thread has been resurrected anyway, I guess Ill add my notes on the matter.

10 BEST and WORST Relics

The first 5 should not surprise anyone. The value of most of these Relics are well known.

1) Gem Box
Gem Box is superior to Economizer. Assuming that you start out with enough MP to cast one spell, then you can always cast OSMOSE for your first spell and refuel your MP for the second casting, simultaneously draining your foe of his MP. Whereas with the Economizer, you only get one spell. Head-to-head comparison: You cast an offensive spells to damage your foe. With Economizer you do X damage for a cost of 1 MP. With Gem Box you cast OSMOSE draining your foe's MP, then cast the same offensive spell and do X damage and given an average Magic Power stat, you should have OSMOSEd enough MP to put your net cost at 0 MP. Gem Box wins in every scenario for every spell.

2) Offering
Gem Box is superior to Offering because of its flexibility. It is true that Offering does more damage on an offensive basis only. That is, 4 physical attacks of attack power X (Offering) do a tiny bit more damage than 2 offensive spells each of attack power X (Gem Box). This is because most monsters have a higher Magic Defense than Defense. However, the Gem Box provides the opportunity to cast defensive and miscellaneous spells as well as offensive spells which specifically are catered to the particular enemy you are facing. The Offering provides a strong physical attack, but the Gem Box provides an equivalent magical attack, or can split its round to cure and attack, defend and attack, or cure and defend. The Offering also allows you to break the 9999 and 19998 damage caps at _high_ Vigor and Levels.

3) Economizer
All Spells and Lores cost 1 MP.

4) Marvel Shoes
SAFE, SHELL, HASTE and REGEN. Need I say more. Starting the battle with these first 3 statuses is crucial in some boss battles and many Kefka Tower battles.

5) Ribbon
Immune to BERSERK, DARK, IMP, MUDDLE, MUTE, POISON, SEIZURE, SLEEP, STONE, ZOMBIE statuses.

6) White Cape
One of the strongest (and most underrated) defensive Relics in the game. The White Cape provides +10% Magic Block. This means that you will sustain 7.8% less hits from both magical and physical attacks. +5 Defense and +5 Magic Defense, which reduces the damage you take from magical and physical attacks. And to top it all off, you gain immunity to IMP and MUTE statuses.

You will note that I place a bit of priority to Defensive Relics relative to Offensive Relics. This is because most monsters and just about all Bosses have a faster Speed stat than chars. So they will get to attack first or more often during combat than the party. So it is always more valuable to be able to survive their attacks than to dish out an extra X HP in damage.

7) Hero Ring
+25% damage to all physical and magical attacks. Additionally you gain +25% to cure spells.

8) Tintinabar
+HP per step. Use this anytime you are in a town or no random encounter area to full heal every party member. No GP cost. No MP cost. Time-consuming, but cheap. Dont forget to reequip other relics after you are done full-healing. Being at full HP at the beginning of every combat is always superior to dealing more damage or receiving less damage.

9) Genji Glove
Equip two weapons. Loss of shield. Essentially this lets you break the 9999 damage cap at the expense of Defense. Mostly for ego massaging, but useful and even essential during some Boss battles. Useful at any point in the game at any level, but only optimal once you can do 9999 with 1 weapon, which occurs around L64 for most chars.

10)Merit Award
Some chars can only attain 128% MBlock by using this Relic. It lets some of the weaker chars attain higher Defenses and Magic Defenses, and lets Gau equip weapons.

Honorable mentions to Blizzard Orb (gives Umaro access to the Storm special attack, +5 Magic Power which boosts the Storm special even more, Immunity to Fire attacks, and absorbs Ice attacks) and Moogle Charm (valuable because you can enter areas, gather all the superior weapons and armors, then reenter offensively and defensively stronger).

46) True Knight
If someone else is in NEARFATAL condition, then you should have put better Relics and Equipment on that person instead of trying to compensate with this character's Relics. This slot could be put to much better use with some other Defensive Relic like the Marvel Shoes, Ribbon or White Cape. If each character is equipped with these things, then it will never be necessary to defend them in NEARFATAL status.

47) Sniper Sight
There are several weapons which provide 100% to hit capability. Use them instead of wasting a valuable Relic slot on it. In the rare instance where you arbitrarily must use the Blizzard+Blizzard+Sniper Sight+Genji Glove to kill the Catrot, then go for it. But otherwise, you are just wasting the Relic slot.

48) Sprint Shoes
Yes its convenient, but you could save yourself more time by equiping a useful offensive or defensive Relic which will actually help you during combats! And if you are playing on a PSX, then you should be using the X button to gain the same benefit anyway.

49) Jewel Ring
There are 364-366 monsters in the game (depending on your definition of a 'monster'). Of those, only 18 monsters in the game have a STONE-inflicting attack. And 7 of those are Bosses which you will only encouter once. So this has very limited use and there are many other Relics which provide immunity to STONE as well as other beneficial properties.

50) Zephyr Cape
This Relic ONLY provides +10% Magic Block, despite the item description's insinuation that it does more. I have well documented tests whicih prove conclusively that this Relic only provides the Magic Block, nothing more. The Red Cape graphic is cool-looking, but provides no benefit. Perhaps later I will post the results of my tests on this Relic in another thread.

51) Exp Egg
Of all the things in FF6 that you can control, gaining XP has got to be the easiest one to control. Why waste a Relic slot on something that you can completely control? Anyway, leveling should be a controlled process to develop stats, not something that you do to speed up the game! Ive always thought that hurrying through battles for the pure purpose of leveling was a bit absurd. I just dont see the fun in that, leveling for leveling sake.

Now we get into the realm of almost useless, utterly useless and even detrimental Relics.
52) Cursed Ring
Inflicts COUNT status and teaches x5 X-Zone. COUNT status is really a minor negative status, since most (random) combats are resolved in less than 60 seconds anyway. While the Teach X-Zone is not as beneficial as you think, since you already have access to the Fenrir Esper at this point which also teaches X-Zone x5. But you can learn it twice as fast on one char or x5 on 2 chars. Minor detriment + minor value = almost useless.

53) Goggles
Immune to DARK status. DARK status is bugged, in that it does not decrease your chances to attack. The only effect from DARK is that Strago cannot learn LORES when he has DARK status. Utterly useless Relic.

54) Beads
+20% Evade. Evade is bugged and has no effect on the game. Utterly useless.

And without question, the worst Relic in the game is.......
55) Coin Toss
I still haven't figured out how the devs decided that this Relic is an UPGRADE for Setzer. In fact it is a downgrade. Not only does he LOSE his SLOTS skill, but the GP attack COSTS you GP!! True, the attack ignores defense, but you lose GP and a decent/good skill to use it. Overall this is a detrimental Relic. Never use it. By definition, every other Relic is better than this one.

Dishonorable mentions to Mithril Glove (SAFE when NEARFATAL and +5 Defense) and Barrier Ring (SHELL when NEARFATAL and +3 Magic Power). If it werent for the stat bonuses, these two would have been in the WORST 10 list. There is only 1 scenario in the whole game where either of these Relics are beneficial: when playing a low level game, during the Ultros battle with Banon. Equip Mithril Glove on Banon and he will survive the party Tentacle attack. Even then he cannot survive the single Tentacle attack. And Ultros attacks so often that the 1 round decrease in damage doesnt prevent you from losing the combat anyway.

Debunking some previously mentioned 'good' combos:
* Economizer is always superior to Gold Hairpin. So Gem Box + Gold Hairpin or Hero Ring + Gold Hairpin is never a prefered combo. If you are in WOR, then you have access to both at the same time, go get the Economizer. And forget you ever heard about the Gold Hairpin.

* White Cape is always superior to Zephyr Cape. And you acquire the White Cape _very_ early in the game.

* Adding Muscle Belt to 'improve' the Atma Weapon's damage will never work. The Atma Weapon's damage formula is Total damage = 1 + {normal damage * LEVEL * ((HP/256)+1)/((MHP/256)+1)}/64.
So as you can see, as long as HP=MaxHP, the absolute amount of MaxHP is irrelevant.

* Marvel Shoes are always superior to Pod Bracelet. With Marvel Shoes you also gain HASTE and REGEN.

* Im not a big fan of Cure Rings. You could use that slot for some great defensive Relics instead. Cure Rings dont cure that much damage per round to make it worth it. The max you can heal per round is 255. And that only comes with extremely high Stamina (L60+). So even at max cure per round there are better Relics available. But if you must place a high value on REGEN, go with the Marvel Shoes.

Some other good Relic combos (only printing those not mentioned yet):
* Hero Ring + Hero Ring = ~+50% to all physical and magical attack damage.
* Hyper Wrist + Genji Glove. Good on any char, but especially effective on Strago with Hyper Wrist + Genji Glove + 2 Heal Rods + Cursed Shield. *Crazy Strago Healer*
* Blizzard Orb + Hero Ring. This optimizes his usage of Storm, and maximizes the damage done with it. Put Umaro alone in a party to prevent him from using his Rage attack, further maximizing his chances of using Storm. Note: Hero Ring is superior to Barrier Ring for optimizing his Storm damage.
* Marvel Shoes + Ribbon. Perhaps the most effective defense combo in the game. I do not recommend Memento Ring or Safty Bit, since they do NOT prevent Death from many sources, including Pep Up and Overcast.
* Gale Hairpin + Back Guard. Should probably be split between two chars so they may each benefit from some other offensive or defensive Relics too. Provides the best chances of gaining the best 'position' in an encounter. Short of the Moogle Charm, that is. The Moogle Charm has its uses, but what fun is it to avoid combat altogether?
* No weapon + Sneak Ring + Offering to STEAL x4. Could use a Dirk, but this way if you get nothing 4 times, you are guaranteed another try.
* 2 Earrings when casting CURE spells outside of combat
* Hero Ring + Genji Glove + 2 Wing Edges. WOOHOO! Big damage + DEATH. Or + 2 Hawk Eyes : Especially effective versus flying monsters.
* Fake Mustache + Hero Ring. Big damage using enemy attacks. Most importantly, removes 1 monster from combat.
* Thief Glove + Sneak Ring. Improves chances to steal during CAPTURE attack. Sneak Ring also provides +5 Speed and ensures that at L99 versus any monster in the game, including Pugs, you have 100% chance to get common items and a minimum 12.5% chance to get rare items.
* Running Shoes + Offering. Big damage more often. Note: Running Shoes also provide immunity to SLOW status.
* Gau + Merit Award + Tempest. Wicked cool RAGE attacks.
* Always use at least 1 Hero Ring with Ignore Defense (ID) weapons. ID weapons include: ValiantKnife, Atma Weapon, Dice, Fixed Dice, Heal Rod and any Thrown Weapons. If it ID, its best to get as much bang for your buck as you can.
* White Cape + Earrings are available VERY early in the game and provide a great balance of offense and defense, good on just about any char. I use this combo on many chars throughout the game, at every level.

This post has been edited by Detah on 15th March 2004 16:30

The Genji Golves plus Blackbelt plus one regular wepon plus the drainer = a good time

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There is a time and a place for everything, and I am niether

i know you have posted this before but il post it anyway,
ganjiglove+offering=attack 8 times in a row, i used it on cyan it was cooooooool

All you need is Genji Glove + Offering on a morphed Terra with Illumina and Excalibur. I can kill ANYthing (9999 x 8= 79,992) in one move with this combo.

Sorry for getting off topic a bit, but wouldn't this also mean that Terra is technically the best esper in the game?


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"It is a part of human nature to be evil, and it is a part of human nature to destroy evil, therefore, when evil is destroyed, so will be the human race..."
- Atma

Quote

Sorry for getting off topic a bit, but wouldn't this also mean that Terra is technically the best esper in the game?

Half-esper, if you want to get technical about it.

I discovered for myself just about half an hour ago that the Thief Glove + Genji Glove combo is very handy for the Colliseum. This increases the chances that Locke will choose an action that results in him beating down the opponent with his weapons. I had been trying to fight in there with Celes, but she chose to do Runic way too often.

PB78

One of the best combos to me is Offering+Genji Glove with Atma Weapon and Ragnarok or Illuminia. It's FFVII Knights of the Round levels of damage. Goddess went down in one attack.

This post has been edited by Jason Rivera on 28th March 2004 19:07

Quote (Detah)

* Marvel Shoes + Ribbon. Perhaps the most effective defense combo in the game. I do not recommend Memento Ring or Safty Bit, since they do NOT prevent Death from many sources, including Pep Up and Overcast.

The Memento Ring and Safety Bit do protect from Overcast. I'm not sure about Pep Up but that's a rare enemy ability anyway.

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FFXI (Siren server)
Tauu the Windurstian Tarutaru!
White Mage & Paladin

In referring to Pep Up, are you talking about protecting the caster from death? Because that's not supposed to happen anyway: Pep Up completely heals one of the caster's allies and KOs the caster, by its definition.

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