Status Effects, Intro
Status effects in 7th Dragon can quickly change a regular encounter into a desperate fight for your life. Dragons with status effect attacks can easily tear through your party. So what are the status effects, how do they work, and how do you stop them?
This isn't Final Fantasy, so it's not as easy as putting on a ribbon and calling yourself immune. 7th Dragon has a total of three status preventing items that increase your status resistance. The first two (Physical Guard and Mind Guard) raise your resistance to either the physical status effects or mental status effects by 10%. The last (Celaeno Robe) raises your resistances to all status effects by 25%, but is found within the bonus dungeon after the game. 7th Dragon really has no way of preventing status effects, so it's up to you to heal them as they come.
So what's all this about physical and mental? If you use a Healer you will notice that the status recovery skill is divided into two halves (Recover 1 and 2), each of which heals four different status effects:
Recover 1 heals physical status effects - Poison, Paralysis, Blind, and Sleep.
Recover 2 heals mental status effects - Curse, Fear, Confuse, and Petrify.
The small blessing in 7th Dragon is that you can only have one status effect at a time. What this means though is that you end up with a hierarchy of status effects, where the things higher up can override anything lower than it. The full chain is as follows:
Dead > Mask Pain > Petrify > Skill Seal > Fear > Curse > Bleed > Poison > Sleep > Confuse > Charm > Paralysis > Blind > Stun
Status Effects and You
Note: All status effects can be cured by the Healer's EX skill Vessel of Miracles
icon | name | goes away naturally | cured by | lasts after battle | description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Red Skull | Dead | no | revive at pharmacy, Hypno Crystal, resurrection | yes | Character is unable to fight until cured. If the front row dies, remaining back row members shift to front row |
Gray Stone | Petrify | no | Solmanel, Recover 2, Stonal | yes | Character cannot move and gains no experience. Like death, but easier to recover from |
Sword with a Line through | Skill Seal | yes | Solmanel | no | Cannot use skills, but can still fight |
Blue Face | Fear | yes | Solmanel, Recover 2, Endorphin | no | Character has a 50% chance of not acting. You still input a command, and if they do not act they cower in fear |
Purple monster face | Curse | yes | Solmanel, Recover 2, Endorphin | no | Character receives half the damage their attacks deals |
Red | Bleed | no | Solmanel, Blood Tape, Endorphin | no | Character is damaged by 3% of their max life every turn |
Green bubbles | Poison | no | Solmanel, Poizol, Recover 1, Endorphin, Berserk | yes | Character is damaged each turn. Amount varies by enemy |
Zzz | Sleep | yes | Solmanel, Recover 1 | no | Character cannot act until woken up. Being attacked while sleeping deals additional damage and wakes you up |
? Mark | Confuse | yes | Solmanel, Recover 2, Ripple Lullaby | YES | Character has a 50% chance of attacking an ally. You cannot input any commands. Character will only use normal attacks |
♥ icon | Charmed | yes | Solmanel, Ripple Lullaby | no | Characters will attack allies without fail. You cannot input commands. Character will only use normal attacks. So, it's basically Super-Confuse |
Lightning | Paralysis | yes | Solmanel, Parael, Recover 1, Endorphin, Berserk, Ripple Lullaby | no | Character has a 50% chance to not act. You can still input commands. |
Grey Eye | Blind | yes | Solmanel, Recover 1, Endorphin, Berserk, Ripple Lullaby | no | Character's accuracy is lowered |
Status Effects and Them
- If you really want to cause status effects on your foes, the two classes/skills to look into are Princess with her EX Angelica Cage and Axe Fighter with Balance Kill. Both of these skills lower enemy status resistance, Angelica Cage lowers everyone's resistances for a couple of turns and Balance Kill lowers the target's resistance for the whole fight. Take is as read that you should have these, and I will mention where they are not necessary.
name | wears off | classes with access to | skills | evaluation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Death | no | FRS (instant death) | Purge, Head Shot, Kubi Otoshi, Rokushaku Kubi Otoshi (EX) | Obviously death is the goal of all fights. Instant death tends to have horribly low activation rate, so don't depend on it. Your best bet here is Purge |
Masked Pain | yes | R | Masked Pain | See Rogue page for more information on how it all works, but masked pain is a deadly status effect, provided you can inflict more. Once you have three pain counters you can Triple Kiss for absurd damage every turn, Ecstasy Kiss for unbelievable damage, and when the masked pain wears off, it hits the enemy for good damage. Unfortunately setting it up requires a party devoted to masked pain. It's worth noting that an instant death attack which activates while masked pain is up counts as a status effect, not death |
Skill Seal | yes | FMS | Tidal Wave (EX), End of World (EX), Zeppa Uchi | Skill Seal would be ideal, if only it would ever activate! It suffers from the same problem as instant death, but at least those were regular attacks as opposed to EXs. Considering that skill seal wears off, it's not something you want to rely on. If you really want it, Fighter with Tidal Wave is your best bet, but definitely use Balance Kill first |
Fear | yes | P | Training Strike | If you are looking to shut down an enemy, Fear is it. It has 50% chance of preventing the enemy from attacking, but the Princess' Request skills allow you to 100% prevent them from attacking. It is worth noting that level 10 Training Strike is relatively reliable without any resistance lowering attacks first |
Curse | yes | P | Invitation to Revenge | This can be good, if you can get it to hit. The Invitations require resistance lowering when used against dragons, and even then they can be inaccurate |
Bleed | no | FRP | Blood Blade, Berserk (Self), Futatsu Tubame (EX), Falling Leaf Shriek | Bleed is a nice little status effect which you can have in the background. 3% is a nice amount of life each turn when bosses have thousands of health points. If you go for it, aim for Blood Blade because it also does a bit of damage. |
Poison | no | RH | Scorpio, Venom, Venom Mist | |
Sleep | yes | RSP | Sleep Shot, Sakaba Uchi, Invitation to Fainting | |
Confuse | yes | RP | Panic Shot, Invitation to Madness | |
Paralysis | no | FR | Fang Blade, Tarantella | |
Blind | yes | R | Sandkick |
Status Effect Parties: Handy or Novelty?
<to be continued…>