Everyday Magic Trivia Quiz

Answer: Thunder

Lulu starts out with four elemental spells; Fire, Thunder, Blizzard and Water. These are the four primary elements in "Final Fantasy X". Typically, enemies of a fire element are weak against ice spells and vice-versa. Water and thunder are also opposing elements.

The Water Flan has a high physical defense compared with other enemies on Besaid Island (the beginner's island). A quick shock to the system with Lulu's Thunder spell will kill it; it takes 1.5x damage from Thunder spells and has a low Magic Defence stat. Look for and exploit elemental weaknesses in enemies and bosses alike for easier battles. But remember that sometimes magic just won't work, in which case brute force (or items) should come into play.

Answer: Cure

Although Yuna is a summoner, she also has some white magic on the side. Cure is the most basic healing spell and she already knows it when she joins the party. Healing spells are the staple of many role-playing games and "Final Fantasy X" is no exception. The upgrades of the Cure spell are the Cura and Curaga spell, and the latter is particularly potent as long as a proficient caster uses it.

However, one time not to use Cure is when afflicted with the Zombie status. It will hurt its recipient instead of healing them. In that case, it's best to clear up the Zombie status with the Holy Water item and then heal as necessary.

Answer: By casting Lancet on enemies

In the interests of comprehension I thought I'd include a question on poor Kimahri, who is often overlooked due to his position on the sphere grid. He is versatile and can be molded to be a fighter, caster or support character, although most of his damaging Ronso Rage abilities benefit most from the Magic stat.

Kimahri's Ronso Rage skills are a sort of Blue Magic, which is magic learnt from monsters. Blue Magic has appeared in several other "Final Fantasy" games, notably "Final Fantasy V" where a Blue Mage class was first playable. Lancet absorbs a little HP and MP from its target, and if the monster has a learnable Ronso Rage ability, Kimahri will learn it.

His Ronso Rage skills encompass healing, status effects, damage, protection and even the ability to condemn enemies to death. Individually, they are rather situational, but if one collects all of them, at least one should be useful when the Overdrive rolls around.

Answer: Scan

Scan tells us an enemy's HP (current and maximum), strength, magic, elemental strengths and weaknesses, learnable Ronso Rage abilities and some informative blurb which might help in determining how best to approach the battle. It only costs 1MP and a well-planned battle can save a lot of heartache. This is one of the few spells that Kimahri will have in his tiny section of the sphere grid.

In terms of Sinspawn Geneaux, the Scan description is as follows: "Its shell deflects physical attacks well. Tentacles absorb magic attacks. Defeat tentacles first, then force it from its shell with fire magic. Absorbs water-based attacks."
This tells us pretty much all anyone would need to know about how to defeat that particular boss, although, thankfully, later bosses leave more of the strategising in the hands of the player.

Additionally, some equipment will have the Sensor auto-ability, which will give the key facts about HP values and elemental weaknesses without having to cast Scan. This is useful for regular battles and as long as someone in the current party has Sensor on their equipment, all party members will be able to see these stats.

Answer: Echo Screen

Although this is a quiz about the magic of the game, it's clearly no use if said magic is unavailable! Use an Echo Screen to return the gift of the gab back to our spellcasters. Anyone can use them. Alternatively, the cleansing Esuna spell can remove the Silence status, providing Yuna is not Silenced herself.

If we know an enemy casts Silence, equipping casters with defensive equipment containing Silence Ward or Silenceproof auto-abilities will help reduce or nullify the success rate of Silence abilities. Prevention is often better than the cure, but the cure is usually easier to obtain, within the confines of this game at least.

PS. Ochu Dance can cause other status effects, but for the contrivances of this quiz it didn't inflict any of those this time. How convenient.

Answer: NulShock

Seymour first casts Shell, which reduces magical damage taken by half. Then, he'll cast Blizzara, Thundara, Watera and Fira in that order... and that's all he does.
Therefore, casting the appropriate Nul spell will render Seymour harmless for the first portion of the fight. In this case, NulShock nullifies thunder element attacks, and is the correct choice for this scenario. NulBlaze would protect against his fire magic later in his sequence, but not the thunder magic.

Appropriate use of the Nul spells will make regular elemental attacks ineffective, so long as we know what's coming. One cast at 2MP protects a party of 3 from one spell, which is more efficient than heal magic. Of course, if the enemy doesn't use elemental attacks, it's a waste of a turn. They're situational, but a lot of enemies use elemental attacks so keep the Nul spells in mind for them, especially when you know what type of element they will use.

Answer: Haste and Slow

Assuming one is playing a reasonably normal game, Tidus is most likely going to get the Haste and Slow spells first. The Haste spell should be cast first on Tidus himself and then on his allies that are actively engaged in the fight. Then, casting Slow on Evrae will reduce his attack frequency until he hits 50% HP and casts Haste on himself. Evrae's Poison Breath is very dangerous to the entire group, but it requires a turn to charge and can be avoided using a special command, as long as Evrae doesn't act first. Use of Haste and Slow can help avoid this attack, and will reduce his overall attack frequency whatever happens. Win, win, I say.

More generally, Haste is a highly useful buff spell as it is always helpful to be able to attack one's enemies more often than they can attack back. Hastega, which applies Haste to the group, is probably one of the best spells in the game and should be used at all boss fights right away. However, it's rather unlikely Tidus will have Hastega at the point of the game Evrae is fought, so Haste will have to do for that fight. Although Slow is also useful, some bosses are immune to it or can remove it. There are at least two bosses past Evrae where Slow can be useful, however, so don't discount it entirely, plus there are regular enemies it can be used against.

Answer: It reflects his healing, healing our group instead

After a while, Sanctuary Keeper will realise he's hurt and try to heal himself. By casting Reflect on him, he will bounce heals onto our party instead. Problem solved. Slow can also be applied before casting Reflect to make the battle even easier.

Like the Nul spells, Reflect is a rather situational spell. Although it can bounce spells from whoever it is cast on, it also prevents them from being healed directly (items aside). Reflect can also be used to bounce spells onto enemies that cast Reflect on themselves - there won't be a magic pingpong effect as each spell can only be reflected once. Alternatively, cast the Dispel spell to remove Reflect... or, of course, don't use magic.

Answer: doublecast

Not the most original name for an ability, but it does the job... twice the job, in fact. The only disadvantage to Doublecast is that it burns through MP rather quickly, but with appropriate use of equipment with auto-abilities which reduce MP cost (eg. One MP Cost), this issue is readily overcome. Lulu should get this ability near the time she learns her level 3 elemental spells, although it is locked by at least one Level 3 and Level 4 Sphere lock. One caveat to this ability, however, is that it only operates on Black Magic. Keep that in mind before teaching everyone the ability before they need it.

Answer: When reviving a dead character, Auto-Life consumes a Phoenix Down.

Auto-Life does not consume a Phoenix Down at any time. When it is cast on an ally, that ally will have a delightful angelic halo appear above their well-formed head. Should they die, they will automatically be revived and the Auto-Life status will fade. The Auto-Phoenix auto-ability, which can be integrated into equipment, will automatically have an ally use a Phoenix Down on any ally who dies in battle, but it is inherently separate from Auto-Life magic.

Holy is the ultimate White Magic attack spell, and perhaps oddly considering Ultima's 'ultimate' name, it does more damage than Ultima to single targets. However, being Black Magic, Ultima can be Doublecast and hits all enemies on a screen, whereas Holy can't, so Ultima can still trump Holy. Flare is a strong Black Magic attack spell and Lulu is most likely to get it first... it's cheaper in MP cost than Holy and Ultima, but not quite as strong as either of them.

Getting any or all of these spells isn't entirely necessary to beat the game, but they can help against certain challenging monsters for those who want an extra slice of difficulty.