Combine (Final Fantasy VIII)

Name -Combine: Attack with Angelo

Explanation
-Angelo appears once selected.
-Choose Angelo to activate skills it knows.
-Read Pet Pals to learn the skills. In Rinoa's status screen, choose skill to learn and make Angelo walk the field to learn the skill.

Menu explanation

Rinoa&Angelo — Rinoa giving Angelo a treat after performing a Combine Limit Break.

Combine (コンバイン, Konbain?) is Rinoa's primary Limit Break in Final Fantasy VIII, in which she teams up with her dog, Angelo, to perform a variety of abilities. To gain access to Combine moves, the player has to read about them in the Pet Pals magazines, then pick the move to learn next in the status screen in the menu, and learn it by walking with Rinoa in the active party; progress in each skill is marked in steps. Learning all of Angelo's Combine skills in the Steam version earns the player the achievement Dog Trainer.

Several of Angelo's abilities are not activated by the Limit Break command, and are, rather, triggered by events throughout the battle. Angelo will not appear during the battles against the Propagators on the Ragnarok neither via Combine or passively. Although Rinoa is playable in the PlayStation Final Fantasy VIII demo, Angelo never appears, and Rinoa does not have a Limit Break.

Mechanics[]

FFVIII Status Menu 5 — Rinoa's Combine skills in her Status menu.

The first four skills in the Status menu list are used automatically even when Rinoa is not using the Combine command.

The game has an invisible "Dead Time" timer that counts down from 200 when no one attacks (just like the ATB bar only fills when nothing else is happening). After the timer reaches 0 (after 13.3~ seconds), the following things will be checked in this order:^[1]

if (12 >= [0..255]) Gilgamesh is summoned (5.1%)

else if (8 >= [0..255] Angelo Recover is used (3.3%)

else if (2 >= [0..255] Angelo Reverse is used (1%)

else if (8 >= [0..255] Angelo Search is used (3.2%)

If the player lacks the skill, its check is skipped.

Angelo Recover and Angelo Reverse only trigger if their conditions are met; Angelo Recover will only trigger if there is an ally with less than 25% of their max HP, and Angelo Reverse will only trigger if there is a KO'd ally.

When Rinoa is damaged by an enemy in battle, and is not killed, the game also determines if Angelo Recover or Angelo Rush activates.^[1]

if (16 >= [0..255]) Angelo Recover is used on Rinoa (6.6%)

else if (16 >= [0..255]) Angelo Rush is used on the enemy that attacked Rinoa (6.2%)

Angelo Recover thus has two trigger conditions.

The rest will only be used when Rinoa is at critical HP or under the Aura status by manually choosing the Combine command from the Limit Break menu. The player cannot choose which attack Angelo uses, but the attacks depend on Rinoa's Crisis Level.^[1] 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

After Angelo performs her trick, Rinoa reappears and rewards her pet with a dog biscuit.

Rinoa can teach Angelo commands by reading the Pet Pals magazines, then earning experience for them via walking anywhere with Rinoa in the active party (a chime will sound once a skill is learned). The fastest way to gain steps is to ride a chocobo or drive a car, but using a train will not help.

The player can increase the rate Angelo Cannon or Strike or Invincible Moon appear by not learning the abilities above it, meaning that Angelo will use the preceding skill even on higher Crisis Levels. In practice, the best use of this would be to not learn Wishing Star to get Invincible Moon on both Crisis Level 3 and 4, often considered Rinoa's best Combine command.

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

Combine abilities[]

Skill	Atk Pwr	Activation^[1]	Effect	Pet Pals Vol
Angelo Rush	32	Rinoa hit by enemy (6.25%)	A random counterattack against one opponent. Known by default.	Default
Angelo Recover	N/A	Rinoa hit by enemy (6.6%) Dead Time (3.3%)	Angelo heals an ally's HP when they are at less than 25% of their max health. Heals 62.5% of the target's max HP.	Pet Pals Vol. 2 (Rinoa's room on the Forest Owls' Base & Karen's Store in Esthar; walk ~200 steps to learn)
Angelo Reverse	N/A	Dead Time (1%)	Angelo will revive a fallen ally to 12.5% of their full HP, leaving them in critical status.	Pet Pals Vol. 4 (Timber's Pet Shop; walk ~250 steps to learn)
Angelo Search	N/A	Dead Time (3.2%)	Angelo finds an item in the battlefield. The item found may be a rare item. In Remastered, the previously Chocobo World-exclusive items are found in Angelo Search. Angelo will keep searching for items as long as the battle does not end; can be used for automatic item farming.	Pet Pals Vol. 5 (Esthar's Pet Shop; walk ~400 steps to learn)
Angelo Cannon	72	Limit Break: Crisis Level 1	Rinoa launches Angelo off her wrist, creating an explosion and causing medium physical damage to all enemies.	Default
Angelo Strike	120	Limit Break: Crisis Level 2	Angelo jumps into the air with one enemy, rotates 360 degrees and slams the target down, causing high physical damage.	Pet Pals Vol. 1 (Given during first train journey; walk ~800 steps to learn)
Invincible Moon	N/A	Limit Break: Crisis Level 3	Rinoa throws a bone for Angelo and she jumps up in front of the moon, causing its rays to shine on the party, making them temporarily invincible.	Pet Pals Vol. 3 (Timber's Pet Shop; walk ~900 steps to learn)
Wishing Star	130	Limit Break: Crisis Level 4	Rinoa jumps on Angelo's back, knocking enemies into space and attacking targets eight times, doing heavy magical damage. Under ideal circumstances, Wishing Star can inflict 79,992 points of damage.	Pet Pals Vol. 6 (Esthar's Pet Shop; walk ~1010 steps to learn)

Other appearances[]

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT[]

Rinoa can use Angelo's skills in battle: Angelo Rush, Cannon, Strike, Recover, and Wishing Star.

Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia[]

Rinoa uses abilities involving Angelo. Only two are derived from Combine abilities: Angelo Cannon and Wishing Star. Rinoa's other abilities are derived from other skills in Final Fantasy VIII, her appearance in Dissidia NT, or developed exclusively for Opera Omnia.

This section about an ability in Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia is empty or needs to be expanded. You can help the Final Fantasy Wiki by expanding it.