Cover ( ability ) Cover , also called Guard , is a recurring ability in the " Final Fantasy " series . It allows a character to take physical damage in the place of an ally . It is usually associated with the Paladin or Knight classes . Appearances . " Final Fantasy III " . The Cover ability is available for the Knight class . The Knight will automatically take physical attacks for any allies in HP Critical status . " Final Fantasy IV " . Cover is used by Cecil as a command ability once he becomes a Paladin . Cover has a Charge Time of 0 . He can use it to take damage in the place of an ally of his choice . He automatically covers any characters who are low on HP . Cease Cover removes the Cover status and places Cecil into Defend until his next turn comes up . Cease Cover has a Charge Time of 0 . Due to a glitch , in the WonderSwan Color port , Cecil covers allies even as a Dark Knight . " Final Fantasy IV - Interlude - " . Cover and Cease Cover return as Cecil ' s exclusive abilities . Cover functions the same . Yang has a variation on the move called Cover Counter . He will use Cover on an ally , and after taking a hit , he will counterattack the enemy . Cover Counter has a Charge Time of 0 . Cease Cover removes the Cover status and places Cecil and / or Yang into Defend until their next turn comes up . Cease Cover has a Charge Time of 0 . " Final Fantasy V " . Cover is the Level 1 ability for the Knight class , learned for 10 ABP . It covers characters who are low on HP . Cover can be useful when combined with the Guard command , which makes the Knight immune to physical damage . " Final Fantasy VI " . Cover is enabled by equipping the Knight ' s Code relic , which allows characters to cover allies who are in Critical status . The effect will not activate if the wearer is under the Petrify , Invisible , Zombie , Sleep , Confuse , Stop , Frozen , Chanting , or Hidden status , or if the critical character is under the Invisible status . The relic can first be found in the Returner Hideout . If multiple characters are equipped with a Knight ' s Code , all will attempt to cover for an attacked ally , and one of them will be selected at random to take the damage . There is also an enemy attack called Overture that forces an opponent to Cover for the caster when attacked physically . " Final Fantasy VII " . The Cover Materia makes a character shield other allies from single - target physical attacks . For each level , Cover gets a boost of + 20 % , to a maximum of 100 % , and will cover all physical attacks , including several items such as Elixir and Grenade . The character covers allies regardless of anyone ' s HP , unlike in previous installments . The Cover Materia stacks with no coded maximum . Overflow occurs at every 256 % , reducing percentage back to 0 . The frog type enemies ' physical attacks are not covered for if they are inflicting or toggling the Toad status . The character with the Cover Materia can ' t cover under status ailments that lose the control of the character such as Stop or Sleep or Berserk . Characters with Mini or Darkness also cannot cover . Enemy attacks that use visible projectile animations ( attacks that merely cause hit graphics do not count ) are also impossible to cover , such as flying sickle attacks . If more than one character has a Cover Materia , the covering character is chosen at random . Hits that trigger Cover will never miss . A character covering for an ally still takes half damage from attacks if they were placed in the back row , even if covering for an ally who is in the front row . Cover is found in the garden outside Aeris ' s house in Midgar Sector 5 slums . Cover can also be bought for 1 , 000 gil in Wall Market after the fall of Sector 7 . " Final Fantasy VIII " . Cover is taught by the Guardian Force Brothers for 100 AP . Damage is halved when covering . The ability is unique in that the character equipped with Cover must be one space away from another character to use it . Cover does not work for multi - target attacks . If a party member is attacked by a physical attack that would otherwise kill him / her , the character with Cover will take the damage instead . " Final Fantasy IX " . Cover is a support ability learned by Steiner , Amarant , and Freya . Zidane can learn the ability Protect Girls , which allows him to cover a female party member . Steiner and Freya can learn Cover through the Linen Cuirass , Gauntlets , and Mythril Armor ( Steiner can learn it for 20 AP , while Freya learns it for 30 AP ) , while Amarant can learn it for 90 AP through the Red Hat . Zidane can learn Protect Girls for 35 AP through the Butterfly Sword and Leather Shirt . Protect Girls is a modified version of Cover , which activates when a female character is at 50 % or below HP , while Cover activates when a character is at 80 % or below . Protect Girls covers Dagger , Freya , Eiko , and Beatrix . " Final Fantasy X " . Guard is a Special ability appearing in Auron ' s section of the standard Sphere Grid . When a character uses Guard s / he will intercept physical attacks on the party , regardless of the health status of their allies . The ability remains in effect until the character ' s next turn . The improved version , Sentinel , has a similar effect , except the character will also take a defensive stance and damage from all attacks will be halved . If Tidus uses Guard or Sentinel to shield a party member , the player earns affection points toward the person whom they guarded . " Final Fantasy XI " . Cover is a job ability available to Paladins upon reaching level 35 . Cover relies upon the character wishing to be covered to physically position themselves behind the Paladin for it to be effective . Cover does not negate damage , but allows the Paladin to take damage in place of the intended target for 15 seconds . This is usually used when a particular party member has gained a great deal of unwanted enmity , though the use of this ability does not actually shift enmity . The effect of Cover can be increased if the Paladin is wearing certain pieces of equipment ( ie : Gallant Coronet or Valor Surcoat ) and Cover also enhances the effect of some equipment , such as the sword Save the Queen . Cover may be used once every three minutes . Cover is used by Basch and allows him to take damage for his allies . He learns the ability at Level 45 . If he has the Hero ' s Monograph support , damage will be greatly reduced when covering . " Final Fantasy XIV " . Cover is an ability available to the Gladiator Discipline , which positions the Gladiator between the target and the enemy and redirects damage to the Gladiator . As of Patch 1 . 21 it has been reworked into a Paladin ability with the same effect . " Final Fantasy Tactics Advance " . Cover is a job ability available to Paladins who choose a unit within range to Cover . If that unit is attacked , the Paladin temporarily switches places with him or her . Any reaction abilities the Paladin has will trigger . The ability can be learned from the Save the Queen for 200 AP . Cover is a job ability available to Paladins , learned for 300 AP from the . The Paladin chooses a unit within the range of four spaces to cover . If that unit is attacked , the Paladin temporarily appears in front of him or her to take the attack ( an improvement over the previous game that means even if the Paladin and the unit being covered are both targeted by the same attack , only the Paladin will be harmed ) . Cover now works on any counter attacks that the covered unit may trigger , and negates any knockback that would be done by criticaal hits / skills . Neither character can activate their reaction abilities when the Paladin covers an attack . " Final Fantasy Tactics S " . Cover is a level 10 research ability for the Warrior job , which caps at level 100 for the ability . The higher the level of Cover , the more effective the ability is . The ability Defend is the initial ability for the Warrior Job , and has a chance of reducing physical damage by half . The ability ' s level caps at level 100 , and the higher the level , the more effective it is . " Final Fantasy Legend III " . Guard acts like Cover , it will guard a particular character for a turn and if that character is attacked . The character will take the attack or special attack and receive the damage . Cover is an ability learned by the Paladin and allows the Paladin to receive damage in place of a chosen ally . " Bravely Default " . Protect Ally is the Knight ' s specialty support ability . If an ally with less than 20 % of HP left takes a single - target attack , the character with the Protect Ally support ability will take the attack instead . It can be learned at the Knight ' s job level 5 . Full Cover is a Chivalry ability learned by Knights at job level 10 . During the entire turn this is used , when the specified ally takes a single - target psychical attack , the Full Cover user will take the hit instead , but only suffers half the damage . " Final Fantasy Dimensions " . Cover is the level 5 ability of the Paladin class , requiring 130 AP to learn . It requires 1 slot to equip for characters not a Paladin to use it . " Final Fantasy Explorers " . Cover is unique to the Paladin job , with a cooldown time of 15 . 0 seconds . Activating the ability and holding the button creates a barrier around the paladin , and the paladin and any allies inside the barrier will not take damage from enemy attacks . The paladin cannot move while the barrier is active , but can be pushed or pulled by effects such as gravity spells . This effectively defends against many enemy attacks , with few exceptions , similar to the sword skill Deflect . However , Cover drains AP very quickly if the barrier is sustained , and has a much longer cooldown than Deflect . Since the area of effect is quite small , allies must stand very close to the paladin to receive protection . " Final Fantasy Record Keeper " . Paladin Cecil ' s " Paladin ' s Sincerity " Legend Materia grants him the ability to cover allies with boosted defense . Beatrix ' s " Absolute Loyalty " Legend Materia also Covers with boosted defense . " Final Fantasy Brave Exvius " . Cover is a passive that has a 5 % of protecting allies . It is learned by Rain , Cecil , Charlotte and Ollie , and as Clyne ' s Trust Reward . It can also be used by anyone equipping Golem after learning it on his grid . Cecil and Warrior of Light learn Sentinel , which has a considerably higher activation rate and also lowers the damage taken . Charlotte ' s Royal Armlet has a 50 % chance of triggering , and also lowers the damage taken . Saintly Wall can be learned by Cecil and has a 75 % chance to trigger . Demon Rain has Demon Cover and Cerberus Guard . " Final Fantasy Trading Card Game " . Three of Cecil ' s cards have abilities that approximate Cover . One card only allows the opponent ' s effects to target Cecil , and his card causes damage dealt to the player ' s Forwards to be dealt to Cecil instead . The third card , , bears two abilities with similar effects . The first effect has the player choose a Forward and have Cecil take any damage done to it in its place for the rest of the turn , and the second effect has the player choose a Forward and it cannot be targeted by the opponent ' s effects for the rest of the turn . Both abilities cost two Light CP to use . Two Knight cards , one depicting and the other depicting , have the effect that when they are in a party , any damage that would be dealt to other Forwards in that party is instead dealt to them . Non - " Final Fantasy " appearances . " Heavenstrike Rivals " . Cover is Dark Knight Cecil and Paladin Cecil ' s ability . For 3 turns , other Allied Units in Target Lane take 0 damage when attacked and this unit takes 100 % damage . Removes any other active Cover skill from Allied Units .