Crisis Level

Template:Sideicon Crisis Level is a hidden condition in Final Fantasy VIII used to determine how often a character's Limit Break will appear, as well as different damage outputs, additional statuses, and more options for the Limit Breaks. The Crisis Level is invisible to the player, but is used in the game's coding to determine the outcomes of the characters' Limit Breaks, as well as the chances for the summon Odin's appearance.

Crisis Level is achieved by having a character in HP Critical status (having a character's HP lower than 32% of their max HP, though for Seifer, he must be lower than 84% of his max HP). There are four levels of Crisis Level, and aside from current HP, various statuses also factor into determining what a character's Crisis Level is.

Crisis Level

How to calculate a character's Limit Level:

$HPMod = 2500 * CurrentHP / MaxHP$

$DeathBonus = DeadCharacters * 200 + 1600$

$StatusBonus = StatusSum * 10$

$RandomMod = [0..255] + 160$

$LimitLevel = (StatusBonus + DeathBonus - HPMod) / RandomMod$

If (LimitLevel > 4) Limit Break can be used. This is recalculated every time a character's turn comes up, so, assuming it is possible for a character to use Limit Break, the player can repeatedly skip the character's turn until the command appears.

Seifer is a temporary character and uses a different HPMod:

$HPMod = 1000 * CurrentHP / MaxHP$

Each status effect has a certain value. The StatusSum variable is the sum of all statuses in effect.

• 200 Aura
• 15 Slow
• 30 Poison/Blind/Silence/Gradual Petrify
• 45 Doom

By being under the effects of Aura, the character can easily reach the limit without being in critical health.

The Limit Level is used to determine the Crisis Level that affects the move's potential strength.

Limit Level to Crisis Level conversion:

Limit Level	Crisis Level
4 or lower	0
5	1
6	2
7	3
8 or higher	4

A higher Crisis Level means the character's Limit Break is in some way enhanced. A character needs at least Crisis Level 1 to use a Limit Break. It is easy to reach the highest Crisis Level with the Aura spell, as a character only needs to be at 11.2% of their maximum HP and under Aura status to reach Crisis Level 4 100% of the time. Without Aura, a character with 10% HP has only a 3% chance to get Crisis Level 4. While this is effective, in the end it is a risky decision as the character can easily be KO'ed.

Crisis Level doesn't affect temporary characters' (Seifer, Laguna, Kiros, Ward, Edea) Limit Breaks' strength; their Limit Breaks use a fixed damage calculation instead.

The following lists the differences in each character's Limit Break:

Squall Leonhart

The Crisis Level affects the number of hits in Squall's Renzokuken and the chance to perform a finishing blow.

Crisis Level	Renzokuken Hits
1	4
2	5
3	6
4	7

In addition, there is a 50% chance to perform an additional Renzokuken hit at the end, making the maximum possible amount of hits eight. Also, certain enemies, such as Jumbo Cactuar and Ultima Weapon, have special Renzokuken sequences that are unaffected by Crisis Level. During a special Renzokuken sequence the triggers' timing is different from the regular Renzokuken sequence.

After the Renzokuken sequence there's a chance to perform a finishing blow:

$Chance \% = (CL * 60 + 1) / 256 * 100$

Meaning, there's a (CrisisLevel * ~23.4%) chance to perform a finishing blow. Which finishing blow is used is not affected by Crisis Level, but rather has a fixed chance of occurring depending on which weapon Squall has equipped.

Rinoa Heartilly

The Limit Break used with Combine varies depending on Rinoa's Crisis Level. If Rinoa has not yet learned an ability on the list, it will automatically go to the next highest ability on the list. For example, to increase the chance of getting Wishing Star, Rinoa should not learn Angelo Strike or Invincible Moon.

• Crisis Level 1: Angelo Cannon
• Crisis Level 2: Angelo Strike
• Crisis Level 3: Invincible Moon
• Crisis Level 4: Wishing Star

Zell Dincht

The amount of time Zell has in his Limit Break Duel varies on his Crisis Level:

• Crisis Level 1: 4.66 seconds (Always starts with Punch Rush)
• Crisis Level 2: 6.66 seconds (Always starts with Punch Rush)
• Crisis Level 3: 9.33 seconds (Always starts with Booya)
• Crisis Level 4: 12 seconds (Always starts with Booya)

Selphie Tilmitt

The higher the Crisis Level Selphie is in, the more rare spells appear in her Slots and the amount of spell castings will become three castings more often. The game data contains different spellsets which are graded to higher level and lower level spellsets. The spells in the higher sets are more powerful. The Crisis Level affects the chance Selphie's Slots will select a high level spellset.

See a more thorough explanation on Selphie's Slots mechanics in the Slots article

Irvine Kinneas

The higher the Crisis Level Irvine is in, the more time Irvine has to fire off Shots.

• Crisis Level 1: 8 seconds
• Crisis Level 2: 12 seconds
• Crisis Level 3: 20 seconds
• Crisis Level 4: 26.6 seconds

Quistis Trepe

Crisis Level is the biggest factor for Quistis's Limit Breaks, as several of the more powerful spells she has will only be potent if she is at Crisis Level 4. Below is the list of Blue Magic and their corresponding effects with Crisis Level:

Spell	Attack Power	Effect
Laser Eye	Crisis Lv 1: 40 Crisis Lv 2: 48 Crisis Lv 3: 58 Crisis Lv 4: 64	Non-elemental damage to one enemy.
Ultra Waves	Crisis Lv 1: 27 Crisis Lv 2: 33 Crisis Lv 3: 40 Crisis Lv 4: 48	Non-elemental damage to all enemies.
Electrocute	Crisis Lv 1: 30 Crisis Lv 2: 36 Crisis Lv 3: 44 Crisis Lv 4: 50	Lightning-elemental damage to all enemies.
Lv? Death	Crisis Lv 1: LV4 Death Crisis Lv 2: LV3 Death Crisis Lv 3: LV2 Death Crisis Lv 4: LV1 Death	Inflicts Instant Death on all enemies whose levels are are multiple of X. X is equal to the current LV of the Crisis Level Death spell.
Degenerator	N/A	Instantly kills enemy, but fails on Cactuar, Tonberry, Grat, Vysage, Lefty, Righty, Esthar Soldier (Terminator), and most bosses.
Aqua Breath	Crisis Lv 1: 50 Crisis Lv 2: 70 Crisis Lv 3: 80 Crisis Lv 4: 100	Water-elemental damage to all enemies.
Micro Missile	Crisis Lv 1: 50% HP Crisis Lv 2: 75% HP Crisis Lv 3: 87.5% HP Crisis Lv 4: 93.75% HP	Inflicts gravity-elemental damage on one enemy.
Acid	Crisis Lv 1: 30 Crisis Lv 2: 38 Crisis Lv 3: 44 Crisis Lv 4: 52	Crisis Lv 1: Poison Crisis Lv 2: Poison, Blind Crisis Lv 3: Poison, Blind, Silence, Vit 0 Crisis Lv 4: Poison, Blind, Silence, Vit 0, Petrify
Gatling Gun	Crisis Lv 1: 60 Crisis Lv 2: 80 Crisis Lv 3: 100 Crisis Lv 4: 120	Non-elemental damage to one enemy. Also is the only physical spell in Quistis's arsenal.
Fire Breath	Crisis Lv 1: 70 Crisis Lv 2: 90 Crisis Lv 3: 100 Crisis Lv 4: 120	Fire-elemental damage to all enemies.
Bad Breath	Crisis Lv 1: Poison, Blind, Silence, Sleep, Confuse, Slow Crisis Lv 2: Poison, Blind, Silence, Sleep, Confuse, Slow, Berserk, Stop, Gradual Petrify Crisis Lv 3: Poison, Blind, Silence, Sleep, Confuse, Slow, Berserk, Stop, Gradual Petrify, Petrify, Zombie Crisis Lv 4: Poison, Blind, Silence, Sleep, Confuse, Slow, Berserk, Stop, Gradual Petrify, Petrify, Zombie, Vit 0, Doom, Death	Various negative status effects on all enemies.
White Wind	N/A	Restores HP equal to Quistis's Max HP - Current HP.
Homing Laser	Crisis Lv 1: 100 Crisis Lv 2: 150 Crisis Lv 3: 200 Crisis Lv 4: 250	Non-elemental damage to one enemy.
Mighty Guard	Crisis Lv 1: Protect, Shell Crisis Lv 2: Protect, Shell, Regen, Float, Haste Crisis Lv 3: Protect, Shell, Regen, Float, Haste, Aura Crisis Lv 4: Protect, Shell, Regen, Float, Haste, Aura	Various positive status effects on all party members.
Ray Bomb	Crisis Lv 1: 80 Crisis Lv 2: 90 Crisis Lv 3: 100 Crisis Lv 4: 110	Non-elemental damage to all enemies.
Shockwave Pulsar	Crisis Lv 1: 150 Crisis Lv 2: 200 Crisis Lv 3: 200 Crisis Lv 4: 250	Non-elemental damage to all enemies. This spell ignores 9,999 damage limit, dealing up to ~34,000 HP damage.

External Links

Absolute Steve's Final Fantasy VIII Walkthrough on GameFAQs

References

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