Bushido techniques take time to master. New ones will be learned over time.
Advanced Battle Tactics, Adventuring School
Bushido, also known as SwdTech,[1][2] is Cyan's special ability in Final Fantasy VI. It allows him to unleash a powerful sword technique based on how long Cyan charges up the technique before unleashing it.
Learning all Bushido abilities in the 2014 version yields the Sword Master achievement.
Mechanics[]
Bushido abilities are used by waiting for a numbered gauge to fill up to a number from one to eight. The longer the wait, the stronger the Bushido attack will be. In versions of the game from 2014 onward, the player can outright choose the Bushido level and Cyan will charge his Bushido in the background, allowing the others to act during the wait. In the previous versions, the player must wait for a technique to charge before issuing commands to others; however, Umaro can act during Cyan's Bushido techniques, while Gau and Mog can act with Rage and Dance.
Cyan can only use Bushido if he is equipped with a weapon that is Bushido-compatible, but since almost all of the weapons Cyan can equip are Bushido-compatible (the sole exception being the Impartisan), this is rarely an issue; only when Gogo uses Bushido, or if Cyan is equipped with a Merit Award and a weapon that does not enable Bushido, such as Ultima Weapon, does one have to worry about equipping the right weapon.
Cyan learns new abilities as he levels up, and he will automatically learn all of them after the player completes the Dreamscape in the World of Ruin. Bushido have a set battle power or spell power, and do not change in effectiveness depending on the strength of Cyan's weapon. Neither having the haste status nor increasing Cyan's Speed stat through magicite or equipment will speed up the rate at which the gauge fills.
List of Bushido skills[]
| Name | Description | Obtained | Image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fang (Dispatch) (牙, Kiba?) |
Physical damage to one opponent. Battle Power of 120, ignores defense, and is unblockable. | Level 1 | 
|
| Perform a rapid sword thrust against a single enemy. | |||
| Sky (Retort) (空, Sora?) |
Perform a single non-elemental magical counterattack when attacked physically. Spell Power of 56, ignores Defense, and is unblockable. The root of the Psycho Cyan bug. | Level 6 |  
|
| Readies a devastating counterattack to unleash when next attacked. | |||
| Tiger (Slash) (虎, Tora?) |
Halves the HP of one opponent and inflicts Sap, unblockable, but fails on targets immune to death. | Level 12 | 
|
| Channels focused ki energy through the samurai's blade to halve a single enemy's HP. | |||
| Flurry (Quadra Slam) (舞, Mai?) |
Four physical attacks against random opponents. Each hit has a battle power of 72 and is unblockable. | Level 15 |    
|
| Performs a flowing, 4-strike combo while floating gracefully among enemies. | |||
| Dragon (Empowerer) (龍, Ryū?) |
Absorbs HP and MP from one opponent. Spell Power for HP damage is 49 while the Spell Power for MP damage is 12. Heals undead enemies. | Level 24 | 
|
| Manipulates the flow of ki energy to draw HP and MP from a single enemy. | |||
| Eclipse (Stunner) (月, Tsuki?) |
Deals non-elemental magic damage and inflicts stop on all opponents. It has a Spell Power of 97, is unblockable, and ignores split damage. The stop ailment has a hit rate of 140. | Level 34 | 
|
| Shapes ki energy into a shower of blades, which rains down upon all enemies. | |||
| Tempest (QuadraSlice) (烈, Retsu?) |
Four physical attacks against random opponents. Each hit has a Battle Power of 70, ignores defense, and is unblockable. | Level 44 |    
|
| Unleashes a powerful, 4-strike combo against multiple enemies. | |||
| Oblivion (Cleave) (断, Dan?) |
Inflicts death on all enemies. Hit rate of 182, works against undead but will fail on targets immune to Death. Stalls an enemy's final attack for one turn. | Level 70 | 
|
| Cleaves all enemies in two. |
Other appearances[]
Final Fantasy VI has the first appearance of the Bushido command. It has since appeared a few times throughout the series, associated with the Samurai. The most notable other appearance of Bushido is the Final Fantasy X Bushido command, as an Overdrive for Auron. However, this barely resembles Cyan's command.
Cyan uses his Bushido techniques in his other appearances since Final Fantasy VI. Namely, in Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia, Cyan has access to Bushido Fang and Bushido Dragon, both of which initially require two skill charges to activate. With LD ability Bushido Tempest, Cyan instead requires his special effect gained via his LD Weapon Passive to have 7 stacks in order to use Bushido Tempest. In Final Fantasy Record Keeper, Cyan's Bushido skills are his unique Soul Breaks, obtained on katanas native to Final Fantasy VI.
.png "FFBE Oblivion (FFVI).png (592 KB)")
.png "FFBE Tempest (FFVI).png (827 KB)")
Gallery[]
Etymology[]
Bushidō, literally "the way of the warrior", is a Japanese word for the way of the samurai life, loosely analogous to the concept of chivalry. It originates from the samurai moral code stressing frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honor unto death.
The Fang ability on the Bushido renaming menu.
In the Japanese versions, the player can rename Cyan's Bushido techniques using various kanji characters. The Bushido renaming screen is found inside the Bushido menu, when a player presses the confirm button on an ability. This feature was removed from the US version and most subsequent western re-releases, but was re-added for the western console release of the Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster.
Citations[]