Gatling Gun (Final Fantasy VIII)

Gatling Gun is a Limit Break for Quistis in Final Fantasy VIII that deals physical damage to an enemy depending on her Strength stat and the current Crisis Level, a hidden stat in the game. Gatling Gun is her only physical Limit Break, all others doing magic damage. It is a potentially early Limit Break learned from a Running Fire. Limit Breaks are randomly available when Quistis is on low health or under Aura.

SAM08G can use Gatling Gun against the player party.

Obtained[]

Quistis learns Gatling Gun when a Running Fire is used in the inventory. The item can be obtained by using Card Mod on a SAM08G card, a Level 3 Triple Triad card available since the beginning of the game. Running Fires drop from Iron Giant, SAM08G, and BGH251F2. Running Fires can also be mugged from an SAM08G. SAM08G is a Galbadian battle robot that appears in areas where G-Army is fought.

Mechanics[]

Gatling Gun deals non-elemental physical damage to an opponent as per the following formula:^[1]

Critical Determination

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

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

Base Damage Calculation

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

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

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

Where "Strength" is Quistis's Strength stat, "Vitality" is the target's Vitality stat, and "Power" is one of the following values depending on the current Crisis Level:

Crisis Lv 1: 60

Crisis Lv 2: 80

Crisis Lv 3: 100

Crisis Lv 4: 120

For comparison, the Power value of a normal attack is 20, meaning Gatling Gun is always much stronger than simply using Attack.

Crisis Level is a hidden stat calculated based on how low the party's current HP is compared to their maximum, the number of dead allies, and the number of ailments the party members are afflicted with. The worse off the party is, the better Limit Break outcomes the player can expect. Crisis Level is also raised with the Aura status.

All damage is randomized slightly:

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

If the target has Protect, damage is halved.

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

Use[]

Gatling Gun is Quistis's only physical Limit Break. It is fairly strong, but pales in comparison to what Squall, Zell, and Irvine can do their their multi-hit Limit Breaks. Though Quistis is usually better off prioritizing her Magic stat with junctions, having a physical damage option as well makes her versatile.

As a physical ability, Gatling Gun can critical, whereas magic attacks cannot. However, it cannot break the 9999 damage limit, and so on higher Strength will have diminishing returns.

If the player gets the Limit Break early from the card game, they can use it against some of the early bosses. Against most random encounters, Quistis is better off using Degenerator instead.

For pure damage, Homing Laser and Shockwave Pulsar likely do more damage even if Gatling Gun criticals, unless the enemy has Shell or very high Spirit and no Vit 0. However, Gatling Gun is still one of Quistis's stronger Limit Breaks against single targets, and it is worthwhile to use Card Mod on any SAM08G cards won in Triple Triad to get it early. Gatling Gun can be used against Adel, and can be Quistis's best Limit Break in this battle if she is junctioned toward high Strength.

Etymology[]

[view · edit · purge]The Gatling gun is one of the best-known early rapid-fire weapons and a forerunner of the modern machine gun named after its inventor Richard Gatling. The Gatling gun's operation centered on a cyclic multi-barrel design which facilitated cooling and synchronized the firing/reloading sequence. Each barrel fired a single shot when it reached a certain point in the cycle, after which it ejected the spent cartridge, loaded a new round, and allowed the barrel to cool allowing higher rates of fire without the barrel overheating.

Citations[]