Line #22 GameBreaker/BreathOfFire


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3	[[folder:Breath Of Fire]]
4	!! ''Videogame/BreathOfFireI''
5	* Ryu's Dragon Forms fell into this category. The first 3 forms weren't so bad, but beyond that his dragon forms gave you the power to hit every enemy unit for more damage than most members of your party could hope to do to one, save perhaps with Bleu's high-end spells...which cost more to cast each turn than the ''one time'' you have to pay for Ryu's transformations. Oh, and if his HP hits 0? He transforms back to normal ''at full HP'', ready to transform right back into that form good as new all over again.
6	* The Agni transformation makes the game incredibly easy. Merging the whole party into a single being, max HP, an attack that does 999 damage, and status immunity would do the trick. Have a few Cures (or Melons) and you can beat the game easily.
7	* [=Mrbl1=]. A cheap, easily obtained item that guarantees Critical Hits); these also work on Ryu's dragon attacks too. Carry entire stacks of these around, and bosses die much faster. Well, until you get Agni...
8	* [=Mrbl3=] just as much, if not more so. No random encounters. AT ALL. And these things are available dirt cheap in the very first shop. You're still going to need to do some LevelGrinding to get past the bosses, but you'll at least be able to reach them with your party at 100%.
9	* Karn's fusion forms are similar. He combines with two or three other party members for a major stat boost. He'll always attack first and will deal more damage than anybody except Ryu's dragon forms and Bleu's magic. Unlike Ryu's dragon forms, Karn's fusions remain after the battle, so unless you need a map ability, there's little reason not to have him fused.
10	* White magic always moves first in a battle, unless it is an attack spell like [=Zom1=]. Nina becomes completely invaluable in any boss battle as a result.
11	* The (Boomer)Rang weapons. Combine them with [=Mrbl1=] items, and you will wipe the floor with the entire enemy group with just Ryu.
12	** Tri-Rang, the ultimate Boomerang-class weapon. It was one of his strongest weapons in the game, beat out only by the InfinityPlusOneSword [[spoiler: found in Jade's throne room by a pillar]], and made up for this by hitting, you guessed it, ''every enemy on screen.'' What truly breaks it, though, is how stupidly easy it is to get once you're past the GuideDangIt: [[spoiler: search the base of the tower on the northernmost island, just to the right of where you enter. No tricks, no traps, just DING, there you go.]] And if you're the type of player who reflexively pokes every nook and cranny for secrets and loot, it's not even GuideDangIt; it's just a matter of time before you find the correct spot, thinking ''something'' is probably there.
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15	[[folder:Breath Of Fire II]]
16	!!''Videogame/BreathOfFireII''
17	* The secret character [[spoiler:Bleu/Deis]]. You can have her join your party as soon as you have access to the whale, and you get her at level 35 (for comparison, being around level 20 at this point is overleveled, albeit slightly). She has access to all of the best offensive spells in the game from the moment you get her, except for four of them, and she learns these four at levels 36, 37, 38, and 39 respectively. And her special ability heals her to full health at no MP cost - the only downside is a Defense debuff that wears off after the battle ends. And as she levels up, it gets beyond ridiculous. Other characters can typically expect to gain 7 or 8 points in their best stats, 1 or 2 in their worst, and roughly 4 on average. This character, when going from level 37 to 38, gains +15 HP +15 MP +15 Strength +15 Stamina +15 Agility +12 Wisdom +14 Luck. This is not an extreme example. This is '''normal''' for her. She gets +15 everything at least twice, and maybe it would be more if the stats weren't ''already capped'' by the point it could be possible. The only downsides are that she is a GuideDangIt to acquire and that she cannot bond with shamans (generally ''the'' way to power up your characters) - but since you can only have one character bonded into a unique form at once, the fact that she ''already'' has the power of such a form without needing shamans is more of an advantage than a disadvantage.
18	* The ItemCrafting cook, who you can have access to as soon as you beat the Witch Tower (though he can be {{Permanently Missable\|Content}} if you [[spoiler:pick the wrong carpenter in Capitan]]). If you give him the right ingredients, he can cook extremely rare items that are massively gamebreaking when they're available in large quantities. The extremely rare MP-restoring item that lets you spam your most powerful spells, including Ryu's uber-powerful Dragon summons? Check. [[RareCandy Items that boost your characters' stats]]? Check. Items that can be sold for more than the cost of their ingredients, essentially [[MoneyForNothing giving you infinite money]]? Check. An item that fully heals your whole party while simultaneously buffing them? Check. The only downsides are GuideDangIt and sheer tedium, but if you can cook enough of these items, you'll have a full party of uber-characters who when combined with shaman bonding can put the above-mentioned [[spoiler:Bleu]] to ''shame''.
19	* You can have the aforementioned cook produce permanent stat boost items around the midpoint of the game. The easiest and quickest boost to get only requires you to have a certain Township resident (Daiye, who can be found in Windia and sells all of the fish in the game). Take a quick jaunt over to the nearby city of Guntz, buy as much Fire Spice as you can, then sail back to the Township and stock yourself up with as much Tuna as you can carry and go to town crafting Stamina boosts. You can have a max-defense character in half-an-hour or less.
20	* '''Death'''. At 8 AP it's very cheap, has a truly ludicrous success rate, and works on almost everything that's not a boss or undead, and the spell Angel takes care of them. Fortunately, both spells are obtained by the same people: Nina and Jean.
21	** The [=WorthRG=]. Why waste 8AP on Death when you can cast Death for free by using the aforementioned ring as an item in battle?
22	* For the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance version, the item trading system. If you have a save-file with at least one of the rare, endgame-level pieces of equipment, you can make a backup save-file, trade the items to a file on another game cart, then copy the backup file again and repeat over and over again. The only items that can't be traded are the Dragon equipment, Gold bait, Tolens, and PlotCoupons, but there's nothing stopping you from giving another starting save file an [=EmpireSD=], [=LifeAR=], [=MedusaSH=], or any other uber-powerful items right from as soon as you set out from [=HomeTown=].
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25	[[folder:Breath Of Fire III]]
26	!!''Videogame/BreathOfFireIII''
27	* It's rather easy to make a single character into an invincible killing machine. Doing so is simply a matter of raising a character's Agility to a high enough level (either through leveling up under the faerie master Meryleep, who gives the highest Agility boost, or farming [[RareCandy Swallow Eyes]], which give a permanent + 1 to Agility). After that, stick the Resist skill (which makes the user completely immune to damage for the rest of the turn) on them. Thanks to ''[=BoF3=]'''s unique mechanics, any characters that are much faster than all the enemies get an extra turn. The "invincible" character simply Resists on their normal turn, and does all their attacking on their extra turns. You can also take further advantage of this by using the Chain Formation, which makes all three characters have the same Agility as the person in front.
28	* Rei, after [[spoiler: turning into a Weretiger]] becames incredibly fast and has a guaranteed crit-strike ability. Doing this greatly increases his physical power, but in return, you lose control of him and he has increasingly higher chances of attacking one of your allies each subsequent turn - Often resulting in a OneHitKill of that character. This is what normally balances it out. But add the UselessUsefulSpell "Influence" [[note]]which forces anyone who can be influenced to only attack whatever you targeted with the skill until either they or the target dies[[/note]]. This skill only affects a small number of weak monsters normally, yet it applies to Rei in this state, allowing you to designate a boss monster at the beginning of the fight and then leave him to continuously thrash it. Now combine that with the dragon form of your main character and commence the [[CurbStompBattle curb stomp]] of any enemy or boss, save for [[ThatOneBoss That One]] BossInMookClothing.
29	* The Myrmidon is also ridiculously powerful, and both can be maintained longer than Kaiser. It also allows abuse of bonus EX turns with the Resist ability. Also, try this combination: Rei + Burglar Garb + Chain Formation.
30	* Peco. Under the right conditions, he becomes just as impossible to kill as the Resist-user above. First, he has the highest HP and Defense in the game, and also average Attack. He passively recovers 5% of his max HP every round. He starts at level 1, which means you can get the maximum gains out of whatever master you choose for him. Most people use Fahl, who gives the highest HP and Defense gains at a level up, as well as some extra Attack. So several levels later, Peco is now pretty much NighInvulnerable. Now stick him at the front of the Attack formation, which both increases his attack power (moving it up from average to high) and makes enemies focus their attacks on him, letting our little StoneWall soak up damage while the other two characters do as they wish without fear of getting killed. Peco also has the highest reprisal rate in the game (a whopping 50% chance of countering physical attacks), which makes for great fun when he's getting hit with more than half the enemies' attacks? Watching your tiny, mutant onion slaughter the strongest enemies in the game is both awesome and hilarious to watch.
31	* You can have Nina or Momo be your 3rd party member, then use the Fusion gene to transform Ryu into a tiger-dragon. On top of being faster than Rei, it also has access to the absurdly powerful "Shadowwalk" ability. Costs a scant 8 MP to use (making the form cost 16 AP per turn), and gives you a guaranteed critical hit. This, on top of Rei's spoileriffic abilities mentioned above, can even devastate the final boss with relative ease. Oh, and if you have the AP to spare, you can tack the Warrior gene on to ramp this hybrid form into SuperMode. At this point it will be more than half as powerful as True Kaiser form, and ''will'' get extra turns, making it insanely stronger and cheaper to use.
32	* Once you get the Trance gene, {{Mook}} battles become nothing to worry about. For a piddly 13 AP to cast and 7 AP/turn to maintain, the Shadow/Trance combination grants Ryu access to the Tiamat form, which, on top of being nicely powerful and ridiculously quick, is a "convert the whole party" dragon form, adding in the benefit of the rest of your party being untouchable. It also has status-effect immunity. Oh, and a secondary breath weapon that hits every enemy with ''instant death'' and costs ''no AP'' to use. The awesome serpentine look is just icing on the cake. The Tiamat form is also very effective against the final boss, being completely immune to her spammed poison/confusion spell, and beefy enough to survive until Ryu's AP runs out. It's not quite as flashy as transforming into Kaiser, but two transformations, a wisdom fruit, and [[CherryTapping normal attacks]] can win the battle with ease.
33	* Ivory Dice double the experience gained from any enemy it is used on. With the aid of Fairy Village's Copy Shop, you could get lots of them, and stack them in battle to multiply any enemy's experience exponentially: 2x for 1, 4x for 2, 8x for 3, 16x for 4 and so forth. This is however balanced out by the fact that you can still only gain [[UsefulNotes/PowersOfTwoMinusOne 65535]] exp per battle and you need close to twice that to level up once you reach the high 60s, not to mention the extensive time investment in getting that many Ivory Dice to begin with.
34	* You can get up to 32 hits with Super Combo, which at that point out-damages everything else in the game by a large margin. Even without superhuman speed and reflexes needed to reach the maximum hitcount, if you can land at least 8+ hits, it's still one of the most damaging attacks you can use before you gain access to the Warrior gene.
35	* Focus makes your next attack do 2x damage. If your next attack happens to be the same dragon form's Aura spell, you get another 2x damage multiplier on top of that. He ends up doing 2,500+ damage, where even Garr is hitting for puny 300-400s. He does all of this, in a humanoid form, by punching the enemy. No wonder that the power of the Brood is feared by Myria.
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38	[[folder:Breath Of Fire IV]]
39	!!''Videogame/BreathOfFireIV''
40	* Using the Kaiser is a lot more tolerable this time, since you can EASILY stock up on Wisdom Seeds by shop in the Fairy Village. And find all the dragon summons? WIN.
41	* If you fought enough battles and know how to set up your characters, the Render is this.
42	* The Combo system can make for some extremely powerful attacks even right from the start of the game. For instance, have Ryu cast the Burn spell (easily learned from Mage Goo enemies in the first areas) and Nina cast Sever (which she starts with) after him, which will transform her weak single-target wind spell into a moderately powerful fire/wind spell that hits all enemies. Or you can simply have everyone use attacks of the same type, which will add additional hits for a decent amount of extra damage.
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45	[[folder:Breath Of Fire: Dragon Quarter]]
46	!!''Videogame/BreathOfFireDragonQuarter''
47	* Abusing the SOL system to replay bossfights for massive amounts of [[NonCombatEXP Party Exp]] can easily become this: there's one around 30% into the game that's especially good for this, since it's 3 boss fights back-to-back and the game essentially expects you to steamroll through at least one of them with your overpowering dragon form. Repeat this fight several times and you now have enough party experience to give everyone 10 levels or so, allowing you to fight this battle the normal way with little difficulty.
48	* If used properly, Lin's command-based skill combos can easily be this: with the right combination, you can suck in multiple enemies right next to her and hit all of them with a skill that does more damage the closer she is to her target, doing massive damage to all of them.
49	* The D-Dive ability. Even when taking into account that abusing Ryu's dragon form will eventually cause the D-Counter to rise to 100% and thus end the game, the sheer power behind the dragon form alone is ridiculous. By using the D-Dive sparingly the dragon form can kill any boss in the game, and with the right strategy used, the player can still finish the game with ample percentage left in the D-Counter.
50	** The D-Charge allows Ryu to power up his next attack in dragon form at the cost of a 2% increase of the D-Counter. However, the D-Charge can be stacked. If stacked 3 times, the hurricane attack will be enough to kill even the final boss in one or two hit, while increasing the counter by 8% to 10%. To put this in perspective, you could use this to defeat 6 or 7 bosses and still make it to the end of the game with about 10% of the D-counter left.
51	** Alternatively, using the D-Dive to finish fights faster and then, making use of the strange save game mechanic, allowing the Party XP to be carried over (while resetting the D-Dive in the process), and then rinse and repeat, farming large amounts of XP. This can get your characters up to at least 10 levels over your enemies.
52	* Lin has the ability "Shatter!" that deals more damage the closer she is to the target. It will easily do damage in the hundreds when she's at a high enough level which is enough to outright kill most enemies.
53	* There's a minigame with the fairies that allow you to exchange money for two different types of currencies. The idea is you buy low and sell high. One of them has a fairly predictable, but low rate of return. The other is higher risk...but it still follows a fairly predictable up and down curve. As long you check back every 10 minutes, you can earn enough money to max out your credits within an hour.
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Context GameBreaker / BreathOfFire