Angelo Strike (Final Fantasy VIII)

Damage one enemy

Menu description

Angelo Strike^{[note 1]} is a Limit Break for Rinoa in Final Fantasy VIII that deals physical damage to an enemy, its power depending on Rinoa's Strength stat. It is her Level 2 Combine ability, a command available randomly when Rinoa is on low health or under Aura status.

Angelo Strike sics Rinoa's dog, Angelo, at an enemy, where she grabs them, jumps into the air, somersaults, and slams the enemy to the ground. Rinoa then rewards her pet with a dog biscuit.

Obtained[]

Angelo Strike is learned from Pet Pals Vol. 1, received from Zell on the train to Timber as part of the story. The magazine is also sold in Karen's Store in Esthar City. After Rinoa joins the party, the player can set what ability they want to learn in her Status menu. To learn Angelo Strike after reading the magazine, the player needs to walk for approximately 800 steps with Rinoa in the active party.

Steps are accumulated the fastest by driving a fueled car on the world map (or riding a chocobo, but chocobos are not yet available when the player first gets Rinoa in the party).

Mechanics[]

Angelo Strike is Rinoa's Crisis Level 2 Combine Limit Break, also used on higher Crisis Levels if other Combine abilities are not learned; Angelo will use the highest level skill that she knows and that is valid to use.

• Crisis Level 1: Angelo Cannon
• Crisis Level 2: Angelo Strike
• Crisis Level 3: Invincible Moon
• Crisis Level 4: Wishing Star

Crisis Level is a hidden calculation; the lower Rinoa's current HP, the more ailments she is afflicted with, and the more KO'd active party members she has, the higher the Crisis Level.

Angelo Strike deals non-elemental physical damage to one enemy as per the following formula:^[1]

Critical Determination

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

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

Base Damage Calculation

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

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

${\displaystyle Damage = Damage \times 120 / 16}$

Where "Strength" is Rinoa's Strength stat and "Vitality" is the target's Vitality stat. For comparison, Angelo Strike is 500% stronger than a normal use of Rinoa's Attack command. It is her strongest physical-based Angelo ability.

All damage is randomized slightly:

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

If the target has Protect, damage is halved.

Angelo abilities are not available in the battles against Propagators.

Use[]

Angelo Strike is Rinoa's Level 2 Combine Limit Break that simply damages one enemy. It is stronger than her default Limit Break, Angelo Cannon, but only targets one enemy, whereas Cannon damages all. The player can opt to not learn it to get Angelo Cannon on both Crisis Level 1 and 2. As Angelo Cannon is still a good Combine skill, the player may opt to learn the other early Angelo skills first: Recover, Angelo Reverse, and Invincible Moon, as Pet Pals Vol 1—4 are all available right as Rinoa joins or very soon after.

As damage from Angelo Strike, and most of her Combine abilities, are based on Rinoa's Strength stat, she is better off built toward Strength until she learns her ultimate Limit Breaks, Angel Wing and Wishing Star. However, when she joins the player, the party already has two superior physical attackers: Squall and Zell.

The player can aim to distribute their Guardian Forces for every Strength-focused character to have Str-J and Str+% abilities. The GFs that natively have Str-J are Shiva, Ifrit, Brothers, Pandemona, and Cerberus, but it can be added with Str-J Scroll, bought from pet shops (Timber pet shop requires Familiar).

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