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When MissileBay or the Laser Gun is destroyed, Air Force sends out Speck. At the same time a countdown begins, ending with a WaveCannon. Watch out for Tek Lasers.
Final Fantasy VI PlayStation Bestiary entry
The Air Force is a boss in Final Fantasy VI. It is flanked by Laser Gun and Missile Bay, and attacks the party during their first flight to the Floating Continent.
Stats
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Battle
Air Force and its attachments use mostly magical attacks, so summoning Zona Seeker is not a bad opener to protect the party. Summoning Kirin for Regen can be helpful as well. The Missile Bay should be defeated first, as it attacks with Missile, which can cause Sap, and Launcher which puts the entire party in Critical status. Locke can steal a rare Debilitator from it if he is in the party.
Laser Gun should be killed next. It uses powerful magic such as Atomic Rays that affects all characters, as well as Magitek Laser. When it gets low on HP it begins using Diffractive Laser instead of Atomic Rays, which is actually weaker. During this time, Air Force itself uses Magitek Laser and Diffractive Laser until both of its allies are defeated.
Once both Missile Bay and Laser Gun are defeated, Air Force launches a Bit. The Bit does not attack; it is essentially a permanent Runic and prevents any Magic from being used. Once the Bit is launched, Air Force will begin counting down from six without attacking, and when it reaches zero, it uses Wave Cannon, a powerful Lightning-elemental attack against all characters. It then resets the counter, but starts at three instead. The player should quickly dispatch the Bit and try to defeat Air Force before it finishes the countdown.
Strategy
The same basic strategy should be used against all three parts. Thundara spells work well, as does Wind Rhapsody. Mog can also try Water Harmony, as El Niño can deal a lot more damage than Wind Slash due to weaknesses, and Plasma shows up more frequently. Wind Song is the area's home dance, so it does not have a chance of failing. If Gau is in the party, he can use Chimera for Aqua Breath, which Strago can also use. Due to its high defenses the player should use Defense-ignoring attacks like Chainsaw, any damaging Blitz ability, Fang, or Ultima Weapon to kill it.
The battle script (below) shows that Air Force is meant to gain the Haste status after Laser Gun is defeated, however, due to the way Haste and Slow statuses work in Final Fantasy VI, the status will not actually be applied, as being immune to Slow makes a unit also immune to the effects of Haste.
AI script
Attack Turns: 1st Turn: Magitek Laser (66%) or Nothing (33%)
If 2 monsters are alive: Magitek Laser (33%) or Diffractive Laser (33%)
If Laser Gun is dead:
- If Var1 = 0:
- Gain Haste status
- Bring in Bit
- Display Message: Air Force launched a Bit! Bits absorbs magic!
- Display Message: COUNT: 6
- Increase Var1 by 1
- If Var1 = 1:
- Display Message: COUNT: 5
- Increase Var1 by 1
- If Var1 = 2:
- Display Message: COUNT: 4
- Increase Var1 by 1
- If Var1 = 3:
- Display Message: COUNT: 3
- Increase Var1 by 1
- If Var1 = 4:
- Display Message: COUNT: 2
- Increase Var1 by 1
- If Var1 = 5:
- Display Message: COUNT: 1
- Increase Var1 by 1
- If Var1 = 6:
- Kill Bit
- Wave Cannon (100%)
- Set Var1 = 0
Other appearances
Pictlogica Final Fantasy
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Final Fantasy Record Keeper
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Air Force appears as an enemy in Final Fantasy Record Keeper.
Gallery
Etymology
An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy, or a marine corps. Typically, air forces are responsible for gaining control of the air, carrying out strategic and tactical bombing missions, and providing support to land and naval forces.
Trivia
- Air Force and the accompanying Bit enemy are references to R-Type, a long running series of shoot-'em-up games. The R-9 series of starfighters the player controls in the R-Type games boast a chargeable Wave Cannon as one of their weapons, and one of the powerups the player can collect in the game is the Bit device, a small sphere that will hover above or below the player's ship and absorb enemy attacks.
- Air Force's overall design (including the Missile Bay and Laser Gun) resembles the Blade from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, which also featured a face at the helm, implied sentience, as well as a laser weapon. In addition, the Blade's Japanese name was even similar to Air Force, called Axe Force. Super Mario RPG was developed by Square Co., which also developed the Final Fantasy series including Final Fantasy VI.