History GameBreaker / FinalFantasy

* ''Last Mission'' has the Founder, an extremely powerful enemy who appears to punish you for taking too long to complete a floor. If you get yourself a Thief Dressphere when nearing Floor 44 in ''Last Mission'', it's possible to safely steal items from him, and some of the items you can get from him are very powerful and rare. Special mention goes to two accessories, which can ''only'' be gotten this way: the Valkyrie Nails, which triples the chance of a critical hit, and the Triple Tiara, which makes any normal attack hit ''three times'' automatically. Combine both accessories and use a Dressphere with a powerful physical attack like Samurai or Berserker and even bosses perish in seconds. The best part? Triple Tiara is a ''guaranteed'' steal from the Founder on floor 44 (out of 80).

Much like XI, XIV is an MMO, and thus also subject to debate and changes from patches

* The Warrior's Raw Intuition becomes a seriously absurd skill in ''Endwalker.'' Alongside the damage reduction, it also heals the Warrior for a 400 potency heal for every weaponskill they land. What it ''doesn't'' mention is that this heal applies ''per enemy hit,'' which means a Warrior whose HP gets whittled down rapidly by pulling a ton of trash mobs can casually pop Raw Intuition, use Overpower and Mythril Tempest, and ''instantly heal themselves back to full.'' And like the Gunbreaker's Heart of Corundum above, the cooldown is only 25 seconds. It gets even better at level 82, where it becomes Bloodwhetting, adding in more damage reduction and a small barrier to help mitigate more damage. The sheer self-sustain of the Warrior is so absurd, they can take on a boss even when the healer is dead and ''still win'' without dying. There's a reason they're called the "Blue Healer" in ''Endwalker.''

* The Provoke skill, when it works causes an enemy to target only the user or the rest of the battle as long as he stays in and alive. It also locks the AI into using one specific attack. For certain monsters, this completely trivializes the battle. Most notably the giant robot with the rocket punch. This attack deals half the target's current hp, ''rounded down''. This means it can NEVER KILL. It's the only one that robot will use if you provoke it. In its first appearance, it's considered a BOSS. You will almost certainly have Provoke on Tidus at the time.

** In the World of Balance, with a little manipulation of the travel routes in the Serpent Trench, you can add an enemy formation with an Aspik to the Veldt. It can be mimicked with the Rage command to cast Giga Volt, a monster version of the ''Thundaga'' spell, giving Gau a ''massive'' damage boost, as many Imperial enemies are weak to Thunder attacks.
*** Most enemies on the Floating Continent are weak to lightning too

* After each party member's individual [=DLCs=] were released, a patch for the main game let you play as Gladio, Prompto or Ignis just by unlocking the requisite ability for each at a relatively paltry cost. The result is utterly destroying the game's balance thanks to carrying over their episodic abilities: Gladio can use heavy weapons better than Noctis can and tank the hits where he can't, Prompto turning the game into a third-person-shooter lets him dominate enemies from a safe distance and get free area-of-effect damage for only a cooldown cost, and Ignis is an absolute DPS ninja of destruction with elemental advantages to boot. And so long as they're in the party and fully able, you can swap ''for free until the end of the battle'' with no consequences or downsides whatsoever besides the lack of Warp. This breaks the battle system over its knee, since each character's episode was specifically designed for their mechanics for a reason.

* The Gunbreaker's Heart of Corundum, learned at level 82, is shaping up to be this. It's a targeted 15% damage reduction to yourself or an ally for 8 seconds, and it comes with 2 additional effects. The first is Clarity of Corundum, an extra 15% damage reduction for 4 seconds, and the second is Catharsis of Corundum, a buff that triggers when you or the ally fall below 50% HP, and heals you for a ''very'' strong 900 potency. The cherry on top is that its cooldown is ''only 25 seconds.'' This makes Gunbreaker much more capable of tanking some serious damage while still dishing it out in return.

* In the original versions, StandardStatusEffect in general are completely overwhelming in mid-game on, due to the fact that not only do their base hit rates increase with skill level and spirit/intellect, but they also get tried multiple times (number of attempts increase with skill level and spirit/intellect as well), and they don't suffer any penalty from being multi-targeted. In addition, random enemies generally seem to lack resistance to any status ailments at all, resulting in them being hilariously accurate in general. By the time you reach Eureka or so, there isn't even any point in bothering with damaging spells, when it's much more reliable to completely lock down everything with Shade/Sleep, then 1HKO them with Mini or Toad.

* While the new [[InfinityPlusOneSword ultimate weapons]] introduced in GBA version are powerful to the point of being broken in general, Abel's Lance, Kain's ultimate weapon, stands out. This is due to the fact that every time Abel's Lance lands an attack it has a chance to cast [[BlowYouAway Torn]][[HPToOne ado]] that ''ignores immunities'' and drops '''everything''' to single digits. While getting it is by no means easy (since it involves a DuelBoss that is ''hard''), once you get it any semblance of difficulty from the rest of Lunar Ruins is pretty much gone with the wind, since if a boss is too problematic? Abel's Lance them until Tornado triggers, after which they are one hit away from death.

* Also from the 2021 version, the Viking. For one, its DrawAggro ability was buffed to affect every enemy simultaneously to account for the larger party size compared to the DS version, and is enough of a MightyGlacier to easily tank the hits. Second, it has insanely high HP growth compared to other jobs available at that point in the game, and due to the game's removal of the [[ScrappyMechanic Job Adjustment Period]], there's nothing stopping you from changing everyone to a Viking right before they level up to reap the added HP, then change them right back.

* Also from the 2021 version, the Viking. For one, its DrawAggro ability was buffed to affect every enemy simultaneously to account for the larger party size compared to the DS version. Second, it has insanely high HP growth compared to other jobs available at that point in the game, and due to the game's removal of the [[ScrappyMechanic Job Adjustment Period]], there's nothing stopping you from changing everyone to a Viking right before they level up to reap the added HP, then change them right back.

* Grinding job levels in the ''Pixel Remaster''' is ridiculously easy as job levels are tied to number of actions taken in battle: Go up against some easy foes, kill all but one, have everyone Defend, turn on auto-battle to quickly play through multiple rounds, and gain a job level after every battle.

* Grinding job levels in the 2021 Remaster is ridiculously easy as job levels are tied to number of actions taken in battle: Go up against some easy foes, kill all but one, have everyone Defend, turn on auto-battle to quickly play through multiple rounds, and gain a job level after every battle.
* The Black Belt and Dark Knight in the Pixel Remaster both have free attacks that hit all enemies on screen with the damage being tied to job level and weapons equipped. Since a high-job level Black Belt is stronger unarmed and its Kick is unaffected by rows, it can single-handedly win nearly every random battle up until finding the ''Invincible''. From then on, a Dark Kight can obtain weapons and start wrecking everything with its Bladeblitz.

* In the SNES, PS1 and GBA versions of the game, even Heavy-flagged bosses aren't safe from the Blue Mage's arsenal of Level Whatever spells. Cue manipulating boss levels until they are a multiple of 5, and then casting Level 5 Death. The popular way is to use level-increasing Mixes to get them to the virtual level cap of 255, which is a multiple of 5... The mobile version patches it so that level spells check for the level at start of battle instead of level after modifying it.

* While the change to Magic Points in the later remakes resulted in a massive rescaling of magic altogether to change the game's difficulty, the ''Pixel Remaster'' brought back the VancianMagic Spell Charges of the [=NES=] version - and kept the magic-restoring Ether items of ''Dawn of Souls'' onwards that restore ''all'' of a character's charge levels by one. Combine this with [[MoneyForNothing gil falling off in its individual value midway through the game]] and you can stockpile dozens to even hundreds of Ethers for a paltry price and spam mob-nuking magic with impunity on one side and having a Red or White Mage/Wizard handle party-wide healing on the other for next to nothing.

* While the change to Magic Points in the later remakes resulted in a massive rescaling of magic altogether to change the game's difficulty, the ''Pixel Remaster'' brought back the VancianMagic Spell Charges of the [=NES=] version - and kept the magic-restoring Ether items of ''Dawn of Souls'' onwards that restore ''all'' of a character's charge levels by one. Combine this with [[MoneyForNothing gil falling off in its individual value midway through the game]] and you can stockpile dozens to even hundreds of Ethers for a paltry price and spam mob-nuking magic with impunity to wipe your way through just about everything not magic-resistant.

* In the original versions, StandardStatusEffect in general are completely overwhelming in mid-game on, due to the fact that not only do their base hit rate increases with skill level and spirit/intellect, but they also gets tried multiple times (number of attempts increase with skill level and spirit/intellect as well), and they don't suffer any penalty from being multitargetted. In addition, random enemies generally seem to lack resistance to any status at all, resulting in them being hilariously accurate in general. By the Eureka or so there isn't even any point in trying to damage with spells in random encounters any more, when it's much better to completely lock down everything with Shade/Sleep, then 1HKO them with Mini or Toad.

** [[GuideDangIt Assuming you can find it]], the Ultima Weapon is easily this. In addition to having one of the best attack stats in the whole game, it gives a whopping +15 bonus to all of its wielder's stats. Needless to say, having it makes the endgame A LOT easier.
** Blood Sword was another one that's available roughly mid game. Give it to a high damage dealing character like a warrior and stick your best sword in the other hand. The amount healed scales off of damage done by both swords, not just the blood sword, so you will often times find yourself fully healing yourself each and every turn. This basically makes that character unkillable unless he gets hit with a move powerful enough to one shot him.

** A more convulated way to cheese with this exists: The Bone Mail wearer wields the Flame Lash (Sealed Weapon whip, has a fixed chance to cast Firaga when the Fight command is used) and wears a Reflect Ring, and the other party members use Hide. The zombified Bone Mail user will attack ''themselves'', and whenever Firaga is cast by the whip, the Reflect Ring will bounce it onto the enemy. This can result in some bosses being reduced to an auto-Reflecting, self-flagellating, undying zombie bouncing Firaga spells onto the opponent while the three other party members hide offscreen for a coffee break with popcorn.

* In the SNES version, it was possible to kill any enemy, including bosses (except for [[FinalBoss the game-ending boss]]), by casting Vanish on said enemy and then casting Doom (now Death) or X-Zone (now Banish). This was because the Invisibility status effect (which Vanish causes) makes it impossible for spells to "Miss". And, for some strange reason, the game's code which reads "if attack is magical, and target is Invisible, attack always hits" is checked before any status immunities are checked. Thus, the instant death spells would always work, even if a target was supposed to be immune to them. This was fixed in the GBA version, though the combo still works on anything not immune to instant death (which is to be expected and far less game-breaking).

* A well-played White Mage in PVP is TheDreaded. Their Dia spell amplifies the enemy's damage taken by 10%, resulting in faster kills, giving them the best utility out of all the healers. They have the widest healing range with spells like Assize and Afflatus Rapture, letting them tag multiple allies at once for easy assists. They also happen to have very good damage output with their Glare and Afflatus Misery, letting them score some kills once in a while. A White Mage on their own is a pain to face. A White Mage with Battle High V? '''COMPLETELY TERRIFYING.'''

* In the GBA version, the enemies move at a much slower pace, and the battle system will occasionally give you extra turns. In addition, some of the items from the bonus dungeon (Abel's Lance, for one, which randomly casts an unresistable version of Tornado and reduces a target's HP to single digits) are beyond overpowered. Anyone else want to defeat the Bonus Boss in two hits? Some of the battle system bugs were apparently fixed or at least toned down for the European release and/or later versions in general.

* The best stat-buffing abilities in the game are Matador's Song (raises the party's Evasion by 10 points), Luck (same deal as the last ability but single target and raises Luck instead), and Howl (doubles the user's max HP).
* One of the Garment Grids won in Luca, Treasure Hunt, grants you the Mug ability. This can't be learned through any other means (at least for YRP). As usual for the ''Final Fantasy'' series, Mug combines Steal with a standard physical attack, but unlike Steal, you earn 1 AP per strike regardless of whether you stole anything or not. Treasure Hunt is one method to AP grinding: keep using Mug while one or two Alchemists heal your party and the enemy until you're satisfied.
* Lady Luck is very useful for a few things:
** This Dressphere is wonderful for grinding if you can get it and master it early thanks to certain auto-abilities it can learn; automatic critical hits, Double EXP, Gillionaire, and Double Items.
** Attack, Magic, Item, and Random Reels, as their names imply, let you achieve various effects based on the type of reels spun and their results. And thanks to an oversight,, the Reels stop and remain visible when the game is paused, allowing nearly guaranteed results after only a few minutes of practice. Random Reels has the unique ability "CONGRATS!" as its 777 result, which virtually Bribes all enemies for free and pays the party extra gil in addition to the normal EXP and gil rewards as if they had defeated the enemies. Aside from trivializing any encounter not immune to Bribe, CONGRATS! also allows players to rack up enormous amounts of gil and rare items by knowing which enemies hand them over.
* Tetra Master (the Garment Grid) or Tetra Gloves (an accessory) is broken in more ways than can be listed here. They both grant Tetrastrike, which is an auto-ability and thus making it very effecient. It adds the four basic elements (Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Water) to your melee attack, and if an enemy is susceptible to any of the four, it automatically targets their biggest weakness. Here's just a few ways it can be exploited:
** On subsequent playthroughs, your damage dealers should almost always have Tetra Strike equipped, because it effectively doubles melee damage with little-to-no risk of being absorbed, resisted, or nulled; most things that absorb, resist or null an element ''have a weakness''.
** Combine it with the Gun Mage's Fiend Hunter abilities and you have a character who can deal insanely-high damage very easily. Example: Level 99 gun mage, with a full stack of Battle Cries or any strength buff, and only Invincible and Tetra Master GG equipped. Hit the Ch.5 Djose Road and shoot at reptiles with Drake Slayer. This is ''without'' any Strength-boosting accessories/[=GGs=] equipped. At 255 Strength, she easily hits for 99,999 damage, without bothering with Strength buffs. With this setup, she will probably still hit for 99,999 with lower STR and against fiends with higher DEF.
** Dirty Dancing + Tetra Strike + 255 STR + Fireworks (Samurai skill) = crit everything on the screen with a weakness for a guaranteed 57-59k damage--unless they have Protect.
** For funsies, Thief (melee attacks hit twice) + Tetra Master + Bloodlust (Auto-Berserk) + STR accessory = up to 9999 HP x2 per round. This setup will clear most single-target encounters before you even have a chance to input a command. Set up two Thieves like this and the game plays itself.

* Prior to the re-release, the most powerful item was Cat Nip, which allows the wearer to inflict 9,999 damage with ''any'' attack so long as [[CriticalStatusBuff she's in critical health]]. And seeing as this applies to multi-hitting attacks, one could say that this accessory wasn't balanced at all. Even White Mage was a strong candidate for Cat Nip when casting [[HolyHandGrenade Holy]].
** Everyone knows about the Trigger Happy exploit due to its infamy in the Via Infinito. It combines the SpamAttack Yuna learns at the beginning of the game with Cat Nip [[DeathOfAThousandCuts to remove 9,999 HP with each hit, up to a maximum of 20 or more hits]], [[UpToEleven even more so if you hooked her up with Haste]]. It got revised in the International and HD Remaster version to inflict Berserk on the user, so this combination is no longer possible.
** It's ''still'' ripe for abuse though, but not to the same extent as in the vanilla version. Combine it with the Thief Dressphere, which has innate double-strike as its regular attack, as well as access to the First Strike auto-ability after learning it, then find some way to lower her to critical HP so that she'll be slicing off almost 20,000 HP at the start of each battle. On a NewGamePlus, you can reduce Chac (one of the DegradedBoss encounters from Via Infinito) to a joke by loading up three Thieves with Cat Nip and Speed Bracers and them putting them in critical HP status before the fight. Then just sit back and watch them take Chac apart--who of course never gets a turn because of the stagger effect with every melee Thief attack.
** Lady Luck can cheese Cat Nip in the remaster, provided the player has a Minerva Plate, and the 4x Dice attack. As she is throwing her dice, another girl should lower her HP to critical, which triggers the buff and causes the 4 dice to deal 40,000 damage (9,999 per hit). Heal Lady Luck and repeat until the battle is over.