Final Fantasy IV Checklist

Augments

Description

Augments are the trickiest part of Final Fantasy IV gameplay mechanics. They serve multiple purposes, are of limited availability and their usage is irrevocable, which makes it difficult to experiment.

  • An augment is an item that, when used, permanently teaches a character a new ability, which can then be equipped from the ability list in the main menu.

    • Only 5 abilities can be equipped at a time, including the auto-battle slot.

  • Most augments can only be acquired once per playthrough, some can only be acquired once ever. Some can only be acquired or kept in the second playthrough.

  • A lot of augments are acquired by "trading" with temporary characters (all except Cecil, Rosa, Rydia, Kain and Edge) by giving them abilities while they are in your party. Each temporary character will provide one guaranteed augment when they leave, plus an additional one for each augment you used on that character, up to a maximum of 2 (3 total).

    • The only exception to this is Palom and Porom. They count as one character, but provide 3 extra augments (4 total), including the highly powerful Dualcast. You must give a total of three augments to them, at least one each. You also get two guaranteed Twincast augments from them.

  • The secondary purpose of augments is to determine a character's stat growth at the highest levels. Stat growth is predetermined for each character up to level 70, but after that, each time you level up, the stats increase in accordance with what abilities the character has equipped (not just learned!). Combined with the fact that a lot of augments can only be acquired on the second playthrough, this makes fully maximizing characters' stats on the first playthrough impossible.

    • Only 4 of abilities can be equipped for stat growth, since auto-battle slot does not count.

Stat maximizing

Have these augments equipped at the appropriate levels on NG+ to achieve the closest thing to maximised stats possible in the game, without sacrificing combat augments on less efficient characters (such as Limit Break on Rydia instead of Kain or ?????'s Love on Rosa instead of Cecil). You can also use this guide for the first playthrough, although it won't be complete since you won't have access to all the augments.

Recommendations

Augments in italics can only be acquired once, as opposed to regular augments that can be re-acquired on subsequent playthroughs.

New Game

Augment

Give to

Reason

Using up a Potion every time you are hit, regardless of damage amount, isn't very useful. Give it to Porom as one of the 3 augments needed to obtain Dualcast.

Item Lore is more useful than Auto Potion, but still not as useful as Dualcast. Give it to Palom to make the most out of his Flame Rod and Ice Rod weapons.

As the main character that is always in your party, and occasionally the only character, Cecil can get the most use out of instantly retaliating against physical attacks.

With Counter used by Cecil, this is the only augment remaining to give to Palom or Porom in exchange for Dualcast.

Necessary for maximizing Rosa's and Edge's stats on NG+, and is more useful in combat for Edge due to his higher Intellect.

Tellah's second extra augment is Fast Talker, which halves the casting time of spells, making another exceedingly useful augment for magic users.

Both mages benefit from double casting, but being able to recover and buff/debuff in a single turn is more useful than just doing damage twice.

Cecil and Rosa twincast Ultima, one of the most powerful non-summon spells in the game.

Needed for maximizing Cecil's and Rydia's stats. More useful for Cecil first as it can increase gil acquisition in early NG+.

While not useful in most encounters, can be strategically used for boss fights, as Edge's damage output is rarely notable, while Hastemarch stacks with regular Haste and Life's Anthem constantly regenerates HP for the whole party without using any MP.

Recall is too expensive to use in random battles and too unpredicatble for boss encounters. Give it to Yang to exhange for Kick.

Doubling defense at critical HP is a very situational ability that rarely comes into play. Give to Yang to exchange for Brace.

While both mages will benefit from halved casting time, Rosa handles more diverse types of spells.

Same as Tsunami.

Cecil has the highest defense (including best armor) and is present in all fights. This makes him the best enemy target candidate, especially when combined with Counter.

None

You'll probably acquire this quite late in the game, when it will be neither useful in combat nor good for trading. Save it to have an extra to trade in NG+.

Edge has the lowest physical defence of the main melee characters, so he can get the most use out of dealing full damage from the back row.

Both mages can use an increase in MP, but Rosa can recover hers with Pray, and Rydia's summons cost more.

The same function can be achieved by using Libra spell and Bestiary item. Give to Fusoya in exchange for Omnicasting.

Needed by Rosa and Rydia for stat maxing, Rosa has more use of it due to higher Intellect.

Doubling damage at the cost of 10% HP per attack goes well with Jump since it doubles damage again, making the total HP-to-damage "conversion" twice as efficient as attacking once per turn.

Edge spends a lot of the playthrough lagging behind other melee characters in levels (and thus damage), doubling the attack damage up to 3 times can help with that in some boss battles where it's important to deal as much damage as possible in a single attack.

Kick synergises well with Counter (counter uses whatever is the first command in the list) and Cecil spends most of the playthrough having the highest melee damage.

Using Brace as the auto-battle command together with Counter, Draw Attacks (and, optionally, Kick) can make a lot of random battles easier.

While gaining 50% more EXP from battles can be useful to speed up early NG+, this is also the least useful augment compared to others you can give to Fusoya in exchange for Phoenix.

Barely any enemies use Reflect, so give it to Rosa to be able to cast Reflect on the party and still heal/buff them.

Cecil is the highest damage dealing melee character with regular attacks, increasing it further (+1 for each battle where Cecil covered someone, max. +99) can end up with him doing 9999 damage with every attack. Combined with things Counter and Draw Attacks, most random encounters can get wiped in a single turn, even when the party is surprised or attacked from behind.

None

Unless you're really struggling with a boss and aren't willing to grind at all, I recommend saving this augment for NG+.

Edge has the highest speed of all characters and is usually less crucial in boss fights, allowing him to bless (and re-bless, if necessary) the party without losing momentum.

While not useful in most random encounters, being able to cast things like Haste or Reflect on the whole party can make a lot of boss fights a lot easier.

Kain (or Edge)

When a character with Phoenix equipped is KO'd, he automatically revives all other KO'd characters by spending his remaining MP. The amount of HP the revived characters get depends on how much of the character's MP he has left (percentage), so give it to whoever uses the magic the least. I recommend Kain because he doesn't use MP at all, and has decent HP and defense, making him less likely to die first.

Being able to disable random encounters is most useful on the one character who is always in the party.

Doubling item drop rate is most useful on the one character who is in the party for all battles.

Kain's second-highest melee damage, coupled with Darkness, Focus and his Jump ability, allows him to reliably deal over 9999 damage in a single attack.

New Game+