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This is only for the NES, WonderSwan Color, and PS1 versions. The Dawn of Souls version has a separate page.

The game allows you to create a party of four characters (chosen from warriors, monks, thieves, black mages, white mages, and red mages) and go on a quest to activate the four crystals and restore peace to the land.

Each of the six base classes can be upgraded once you complete the Citadel of Trials quest a little over halfway through the game. Warriors become knights, monks become masters, thieves become ninjas, black mages become black wizards, white mages become white wizards, and red mages become red wizards. Aside from a newer, older, cooler look, each character can now equip stronger weapons and armor. Magic using classes will now be able to learn higher level spells and some non-magic using classes will now be able to learn low level magic.

For more on the 1,296 possible party configurations, see the party recommendations page.

Fighters

These are the types of characters that you put on the front lines since they can survive hard hits and hit back even harder. You'll generally want to conserve MP, especially early in the game, so you'll have your fighters do all of the fighting while your magicians protect themselves. However, in many situations, it will be magic than ends the fight quickly and your fighters will simply act as a buffer between the magicians and the enemies. You should have at least one, if not two, fighters in your party.

Warrior/Knight

Warriors were called "Fighters" in the NES version.

Warriors are a good start for someone who's new at the game because of their many positive qualities and relatively few negative qualities. They work well with any class and unlike most of the other classes, they are still effective when you have more than one in your party. The cost of keeping them (especially Knights) up to date with the latest equipment makes having more than one rather cost-prohibitive.

Fighter (original)

Knight (original)

Warrior

Knight

Pros:

• High HP, Defense, and Strength stats.
• They can equip almost every weapon and armor in the game.

Cons:

• Low Speed stat. They will often be the last to attack when in battle.
• They can't use any magic until they upgrade, and then only weak white magic.
• Very expensive to keep fully equipped.

Upgrade:

• Knights can use low level (1-3) white magic.

This class does the highest damage over most of the game, and has the highest survivability against both magic and melee attacks for the entire game. They have incredibly high defensive power as well as high HP - high enough that an attack that would do 80+ damage to any other class will only do 1 damage to a warrior/knight. Strength is the highest statistic for the Fighter, with Vitality also being important.

Once upgraded you can use them for healing minor wounds in order to save your white wizard's MP for when you need powerful healing spells. The knight can also use the very best of weapons and armor, of which there are 1-2 of each type only usable by this class.

The warrior is the overall strongest class by far. The major drawback of the class is that it is the most expensive to outfit properly; however even a poorly-outfitted warrior will be stronger than a thief or black belt. By late game although other classes can compete in damage-dealing the knight stands alone in survivability. Running without one of this class is not recommended for beginners, and the strongest parties will contain two warriors.

Thief/Ninja

These guys are a tough sell because they are fairly weak throughout most of the game and will have to rely on the other party members to survive. They improve quite a bit with the class change however, so it's up to you whether or not you want to put up with the Thief until you get the Ninja. Both versions have extremely high agility, which will make it significantly easier to flee from battles throughout the game.

Thief (original)

Ninja (original)

Thief

Ninja

Pros:

• High Speed stat. This will allow them to flee from battles easily, which is reason enough to have one.
• A ninja can do almost as much damage as a knight during most of the game.

Cons:

• They have somewhat low HP and defense (though still better than Wizards), so they can get killed quickly if enemies target them primarily.
• Low magic resistance. Not as bad as the monk/master, but expect them to take 1.5x to 3x as much damage from a spell as a wizard or knight.
• They are not very useful in the early game when your levels are still low.

Upgrade:

• Ninjas can use low level (1-4) black magic.

A Ninja makes a good secondary fighter, especially when teamed up with a Warrior/Knight. Don't put him at the front of the party - even as a Ninja he cannot take that much damage. Battles in FFI tend to be brutal, so you will be running away a lot, solely for the purpose of having enough HP and MP to fight the boss at the end of the dungeons. Thieves, and especially ninjas, practically guarantee that you can flee from a fight. The black magic they learn is fairly weak, however they can learn the important Temper spell.

Note: Despite the name, the Thief doesn't have a steal ability.

Monk/Master

Monks were called "Black Belts" in the NES version.

They can fight as well as a Warrior, except they have much lower Defense. While they can hold their own in the beginning of the game, their low defense will come back to bite them in the ass later. They can beat most monsters into paste but die very quickly if attacked, at which point they are of no use to anyone. After a certain point in the game they will actually do more damage fighting barehanded than with a weapon.

Black belt (original)

Master (original)

Monk

Master

Pros:

• High Strength stat, high numbers of attacks per turn, and high HP.
• Even stronger than a Warrior/Knight - a level 50 Master can kill Chaos in a single hit.
• Very cheap to keep fully equipped since they won't need weapons and or much equipment later on.

Cons:

• Low Defense; as in almost as bad a wizard.
• Near non-existent magic resistance. Expect a Master to take 2x-5x as much damage from a spell as a wizard or knight.
• Because they rely more on number of hits than strong hits to deal massive damage, they sometimes do pathetic damage, especially to monsters and/or bosses that have a high absorb and/or defense stat.
• No magic at all.

Upgrade:

• Absolutely nothing.
• Masters gain less magic defense per level as opposed to their non-upgraded class.

Black Belts are unique in that they gain empty-handed fighting ability with experience. Therefore, they are best equipped with nunchaku early on, but fight better with no weapons by experience level 8 or 9. Armor-wise they are trickier to outfit; although the class does get a bonus when going unarmored it is still extremely weak defensively in doing so (particularly vulnerable to spells), yet the armor available to the class is so poor that equipping it is hardly an improvement.

The major advantage of the class throughout most of the game is that they cost nothing to maintain, saving valuable gold that can be used to upgrade other characters. Unfortunately they bring almost nothing to the party that a knight or thieves doesn't, doing less damage for most of the game and being far more vulnerable defensively. For most players, therefore, a monk/master is a very poor character choice.

All this changes however at higher levels, however. Since the master's damage and to-hit rating continue to increase significantly with each level, past level 40 or so they become the strongest damage-dealers, and by level 50 will do more damage than an entire party of other characters - enough to kill even the final boss in one swing, with a lucky hit. Unfortunately for this class most parties will not reach that high of a level, but for a player that does a lot of leveling-up late in the game or wishes to maximize out your party, a high-level master is the strongest character by far.

Magicians

There are two types of magic in the game: white and black, and a Wizard that can use each type exclusively. They third type of Wizard class, the Reds, can use both types of magic (just not the strongest level of each). All wizard classes have low attack, low HP, and low defense. It is still necessary to have a fighter or two since you cannot use magic all of the time.

Later on in the game you will start finding items that can cast spells an infinite number of times, however they are not a suitable replacement for magicians as the items can only cast fairly low level spells, a very limited number of spells, an the effectiveness of the item-spell is determined by the magic stat. Magicians have much higher magic power than a fighter, so the items will be more effective if used by them. Besides, you usually need to keep your fighters attacking the enemies, not using items.

Red Mage/Red Wizard

A Red Mage is a versatile sorcerer who is able to cast both black and white spells. This allows him to be useful both in curing wounded allies and in destroying enemies with magical destruction. The Red Mage is also relatively versatile when it comes to equipment; he can use many swords as well as a number of protective devices usually forbidden to mages.

They are a pretty good class throughout all phases of the game, because of their versatility, and one of few classes that may still be effective when there are two in the party. In addition to being able to cast both types of magic, they can equip mid-level and most of the high-level weapons and armor. They are not as physically strong as the fighter classes, nor are they as powerful with magic as the other magician classes.

Red Mage (original)

Red Wizard (original)

Red Mage

Red Wizard

Pros:

• They can use (most) level 1-7 white and black magic.
• Significantly better defense, offense, and hp than either of the two other wizards, about on par with a ninja but still much weaker than a knight. They can equip most of the better weapons and armor.

Cons:

• A few of the best spells of both categories are denied to them - mostly at high level but some of the better low-level spells are unavailable as well.
• They get less MP than the other wizard classes.
• They can be more expensive than any other class to maintain since you have buy both spells and equipment.

Upgrade:

• Red Wizards can use up to level 7 magic (with some restrictions).
• Most level 1-5 magic that was restricted can now be used.

At very low levels this class resembles a warrior that can use most spells, so new players might be tempted to go with four Red Mages. However, as you progress their limitations will become more and more apparent. Even though they can use up to level 7 spells, they are restricted from using quite a few of the best ones. There will also be more and more weapons and armor that they cannot use, so they will fall behind the Knight, however there are several very powerful swords they can get, so they will still be more powerful than the other Wizards. Red Wizards make suitable substitutions for a Ninja, Master, or even a Black Wizard. However, they cannot replace a Warrior's high damage nor a White Wizard's high curative powers.

White Mage/White Wizard

The White Mage is a sorcerer devoted to the restorative power of white magic. She is capable of casting many powerful spells that can restore allies to combat readiness even after sustaining grave wounds. The White Mage is also able to cast a limited number of offensive spells, mainly targeting the abominations known as undead.

They are excellent for supporting your other party members because of their healing magic. However, their low Defense and usually weak armor will make them easy targets later in the game. Since Red Wizards and Knights cannot cast Life 2 or the more advanced Cures, you will have to rely on items for healing if you don't have a White Wizard. While they will always be weak, when equipped with Thor's Hammer they can do about half the amount of damage as a ninja. They can also use the Harm series of magic, which is quite powerful against the undead - which you will be facing a lot of in the game.

White Mage (original)

White Wizard (original)

White Mage

White Wizard

Pros:

• They can use level 1-8 White magic, including Life, Cure, and Harm.
• They are a great support because of curative spells and magic that can enhance the stats of the rest of the party.
• Very cheap to maintain in terms of equipment.
• Decent (but certainly not great) HP, and very good MP.
• A White Wizard can revive a dead team member to full health. What more can you ask for?

Cons:

• They have low Defense and Strength stats. Their low Strength isn't much of a problem if you have two fighters, but their low Defense sure will be later on in the game.
• Their attack spells only work against they undead (with one exception), so they can do next to nothing against the living.
• They have a very limited amount of weapons and armor that they can use.

Upgrade:

• White Wizards can use all white magic.
• White Wizards can equip a few weapons with decent power.

Throughout most of the earlier part of the game, a red wizard would be a superior substitute to this class. But without a white wizard you will lack the extremely powerful Cure4 and Life2 spells which will make the endgame far harder; with a knight's insanely high defense and HP, just a few casts of these two spells will go a long way in the final dungeon.

Black Mage/Black Wizard

Black Mages are wielders of the destructive black magic and use the elements of the world, poison, and mental attacks to destroy their foes. They are great to have because of their spells but, like the white wizard, they have very low offense, defense, and life (lower, actually). When used properly, black magic can do more harm than any of the fighters.

Black Mage (original)

Black Wizard (original)

Black Mage

Black Wizard

Pros:

• They can use level 1-8 Black magic.
• Many spells can target multiple monsters at once, allowing you to kill them all easily instead of killing each one at a time. Most of the major bosses are weak against one or more of their spells.
• Most of their equipment is very inexpensive.
• Once equipped with a Cat Claw they can do quite a bit of damage.
• Very, very high magic power - even higher than the White Wizard.

Cons:

• They have a limited amount of weapons and armor that they can use.
• They have lowest HP and Defense of all the classes.
• Offensive spells do not do consistent damage. For instance, sometimes a spells will do 150 damage to an enemy and the next time the same spell is cast against the same enemy it will only do 40 damage.

Upgrade:

• Black Wizards can use all black magic.
• Black Wizards can equip a few weapons with decent power, including the Cat Claw.

Another very useful class, though not quite a valuable as the white wizard and Knight since you can get through the game relying only on physical attacks if you really wanted. They are excellent for clearing out large groups of enemies (which you will encounter a lot of). Once you get the Gauntlets, anyone can "cast" Bolt2 so their usefulness in this regard is diminished. However, they still have the highest magic power and can cast some very powerful spells, including the most powerful spell, Flare. If you are willing to sacrifice a little offensive magic ability for more physical power (and a character that can survive repeated hits), a Red Wizard makes a suitable replacement for a Black Wizard.

FAQ

How do I upgrade my character's class?

You'll need the Rat's Tail which you can find in the Citadel of Trials. Once you acquire it from the chest, you have to take it to Bahamut's Cave in the Cardia Islands. If you don't know where these islands are, they're the group of islands between the North Eastern and North Western continents.

Where's the best place to level up?

Early on, the best way to level up is to battle the enemies at the Power peninsula near Pravoka. From Pravoka, on the world map, go a little south to find the path that goes immediately east. After a short walk you will come to a fork in the road, with the option of going north or southeast. Go north, past the dock, around the mountains, until you cannot go any further. The 2 x 2 section that makes up the edge of the peninsula has enemies from the continent across the straight. Enemies include:

• Necrotaurs (usually in groups of 1-4)
• Hill Gigas (usually in groups of 1-4)
• Winter Wolves (usually in groups of 4-9)
• Trolls (usually in groups of 2 with 1 or 2 Necrotaurs)

The Winter Wolves have fairly low HP, but can hit all of your party at once. The Necrotaurs and Trolls are much stronger, but can be killed somewhat quickly as well. The Hill Gigas are very strong, but give 800 XP a piece (not to mention 800 Gil). At low levels your party might be able to defeat one or two, but you would do well to flee from packs of four unless you are over level 10.

Before even attempting to fight in this area, you should get the Cure2 and Steel spells, and the best weapons and armor you can buy from Pravoka. Elfheim sells Mythril Swords, however they cost 4,000 Gil a piece. You should buy them as soon as you can since they make fighting a lot easier. If you have a Red Mage or Black Mage, get the Fire2 spell as well.