Blood Pain (Final Fantasy VIII)

Blood Pain is the Limit Break for Kiros in Final Fantasy VIII that deals physical damage to one enemy depending on his Strength stat. Blood Pain is his only Limit Break; Limit Breaks are randomly available when Kiros is on low health or under Aura.

When he uses Blood Pain, Kiros slashes wildly at an enemy with his blade, dealing six strikes of damage.

Mechanics[]

Blood Pain deals six hits of non-elemental physical damage to an enemy as per the following formula:^[1]

Critical Determination

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

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

Base Damage Calculation

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

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

${\displaystyle Damage = Damage \times 25 / 16}$

Where "Strength" is Kiros's Strength stat and "Vitality" is the target's Vitality stat. For comparison, the Power value of a normal attack is 20 against Blood Pain's 25; each of the six strikes from Blood Pain is slightly more powerful than his normal use of Attack.

If the target has Protect, damage is halved.

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

Use[]

Blood Pain is Kiros's Limit Break. It is a multi-hit attack and is best used against the toughest enemy on the field if there is a group. As a physical ability, each hit from Blood Pain can critical, and it deals six separate strikes.

Kiros is only playable in certain dream world sequences and inherits the level and junctions from someone in Squall's party; Squall himself always inhabits Laguna. During the dream in Timber and Deling City, Kiros gains Zell's junctions. During the dream in Centra Excavation Site, he gains Selphie's junctions. In Winhill, he gains Irvine's level, but starts with no junctions and the player must manually equip him. In the following dreams, the player can pick whose junctions Kiros gets out of Quistis, Zell, Selphie, and Irvine.

Kiros is best with Strength-focused junctions. However, there are no unique bosses fought with Kiros in the party; the two boss-like encounters being the groups of Esthar soldiers atop the Centra Excavation Site, and the Ruby Dragon in the Vienne Mountains. All battles in Laguna scenarios should be easily won without special attacks, but Blood Pain makes defeating enemies faster for its strength. Unlike Ward, Kiros will always be in the Vienne Mountains party and Blood Pain with good Strength junctions is the best Limit Break to use against the Ruby Dragon there.

Citations[]