Quick Shot (Final Fantasy VIII)

Quick Shot is a Limit Break for Irvine in Final Fantasy VIII that deals weak physical damage to an enemy depending on his Strength stat but fires very fast. It is used with the easily available Fast Ammo. When Shot initiates, the player has a variable amount of time to fire at their chosen target (the player can re-targeting during) with and cancel with . Ammo cannot be swapped amid a Shot action. Quick Shot has the fastest firing speed of all of Irvine's ammunition and can be one of his most damaging Limit Breaks. The time allotted for shooting depends on Irvine's Crisis Level, a hidden calculation in the game. Limit Breaks are randomly available when Irvine is on low health or under Aura.

Obtained[]

Irvine can use Quick Shot when the player has Fast Ammo is the inventory. Fast Ammo can be bought for 100 gil from Cloud's Shop in Esthar City when the party has Familiar from Tonberry. It is available much earlier by simply refining with Ifrit's Ammo-RF from Normal (1=1) and Shotgun Ammo (1=2), both available from general stores. The player can also card-mod the GIM47N card (1=10). The player can additionally get 5 Fast Ammo from the G-Soldier in Grease Monkey's house in Fishermans Horizon when visiting with Irvine alone.

Mechanics[]

Quick Shot deals non-elemental physical damage to an opponent, each hit's damage calculated as per the following formula:^[1]

Critical Determination

${\displaystyle Critical\% = (Luck + 1) / 256 \times 100}$

Where "Luck" is Irvine's Luck stat. If the hit criticals, it will deal double damage.

Base Damage Calculation

${\displaystyle Damage = Strength^2 / 16 + Strength}$

${\displaystyle Damage = Damage \times (265 - Target's~Vitality) / 256}$

${\displaystyle Damage = Damage \times 7 / 16}$

Where "Strength" is Irvine's Strength stat and "Vitality" is the target's Vitality stat. For comparison, the Power value of Normal Shot is 16, whereas Quick Shot's Power value is 7. The damage potential comes from being able to rapidfire consecutively.

All damage is randomized slightly:

${\displaystyle Damage = Damage \times ([0..32] + 240) / 256}$

The time Irvine has for Shot depends on his Crisis Level in the following manner:^[1]

Crisis Level 1: 8 s

Crisis Level 2: 12 s

Crisis Level 3: 20 s

Crisis Level 4: 26.6 s

Crisis Level is a hidden stat calculated based on how low Irvine's current HP is compared to his maximum, the number of dead allies, and the number of ailments he is afflicted with. The worse off he is, the longer Shot times the player can expect. Crisis Level is also raised with the Aura status.

One round of Quick Shot takes 0.2 seconds from the timer.^[2] This makes it faster than all other shots (Normal Shot fires ar 0.7 s); on long timers, Irvine can fire far more Fast Ammo than any other type of ammunition.

If the target has Protect, damage is halved. Shot will not awaken sleeping enemies.

Limit Breaks never miss and are unaffected by Elem-Atk junctions.

Use[]

Quick Shot can be a powerful Limit Break under the right circumstances, being readily available as soon as Ifrit learns Ammo-RF on level 10. It remains useful throughout the game for its fast firing speed, which stacks up the longer the Shot time is. However, if Irvine has poor Strength and Luck stats, he is better off using his more powerful Shots.

Irvine should be junctioned toward high Strength to make the most of his Limit Breaks. The Guardian Forces that have Str-J natively are Shiva, Ifrit, Brothers, Pandemona, and Cerberus. It is also worthwhile to give Irvine any Str+% abilities. Because each hit has a chance of being a critical hit, Irvine is also an excellent choice for Luck-J and Luck+50%; the only GF that has Luck-J natively is Cactuar, but Luck-J Scroll is available from some sidequests to give to the GFs Irvine is junctioning.

Quick Shot can be the desirable Shot to use even in the endgame when the player has stronger ammo, because the other ammo may be rare, and because the damage of each hit caps at 9999; Quick Shot's fast firing speed offsets its lower attack power whereas the more powerful Shots have diminishing returns. If the player additionally inflicts Vit 0 onto the enemy, Quick Shot can be especially powerful. For the best chance of getting the maximum timer, the player can have Irvine in critical HP and have him under Aura status. However, Aura spells and stones are rare.

Quick Shot would be especially good in the boss battle against Adel where the player must not use group-hitting attacks; the boss previous to Adel also had Aura for drawing, and so the player may have gotten a good stock to last until the end of the game. Quick Shot can be more powerful than Squall's Renzokuken when he does not finish with Lion Heart. Irvine's limitation is that he may run out of Fast Ammo, especially during long battles where he uses his Shot extensively. It is worth getting Tonberry and Call Shop for endgame shopping needs.

Citations[]