Attack formations Attack formations are the types of attacks that a battle can begin with . Usually they involve who gets to attack first . Appearances . " Final Fantasy IV " . In a normal encounter , characters begin in their normal rows and their ATB gauges begin depleted and instantly begin filling . In a preemptive strike , the ATB gauges begin filled . In a surprise attack , their ATB gauges begin empty and do not begin to charge until all enemies have attacked . If the party is attacked from behind , their Rows are reversed and their ATB gauges begin empty and will not charge immediately , as in a surprise attack . Uniquely , the second battle with Scarmiglione is always a back attack . " Final Fantasy IV - Interlude - " . The same attack formations returns in the sequel of " Final Fantasy IV " . It function is no different from the original . Like the previous two titles , the attack formations function the same way as it did previously . " Final Fantasy V " . Not all enemies can be preempted at all ; it depends on the enemies and their precoded battle formations . Also , some enemies always back attack the party unless they have the Thief ' s Caution ability equipped . The Ninja learns First Strike which doubles the party ' s chance of preemptive strike from 32 / 256 to 64 / 256 . If the party is back attacked , they can use the Return spell to start the battle over , usually without the back attack . " Final Fantasy VI " . A random battle ' s attack formation depends on which types are allowed in the area the battle takes place . If any character is equipped with an Alarm Earring , pincer and back attacks are disabled . As in " Final Fantasy V " , not all monster formations can be battled in all attack formations ; most formations allow all types , some disable surrounded attacks , and a few disable other types . Most boss battles disable all but normal attacks , while some other battles will always result in a surrounded or back attack . Surrounded and back attacks will never be a preemptive strike . For a normal attack there is a 1 / 8 chance of a preemptive strike . Side attacks have a 7 / 32 chance of being a preemptive strike . If any character is equipped with a Gale Hairpin the chances are doubled . Certain monster formations ( mostly bosses ) disable preemptive strikes altogether . Due to the pincer attack glitch the row command still works in surrounded attacks , even if the battles have no rows . Another surrounded attack glitch has single enemy " surrounding " the party in a surrounded attack which should not be possible . If Gau is learning a new Rage on the Veldt , he will not return to the party in a side attack , back attack , or surrounded attack . The Tyrannosaur enemy can back attack even with an Alarm Earring equipped , and a fight with two Tyrannosaurs always results in a surrounded attack , Alarm Earring or not . " Final Fantasy VII " . Each area has a set number of possible battle formations during a random encounter , and even for some boss battles . When a random encounter is about to start the game performs a check to see if any of the " special attack formations " apply . There is a base chance of 16 / 256 of getting a preemptive battle , but a mastered Pre - Emptive Materia boosts this up to 64 / 256 . The maximum is 85 / 256 , roughly a 1 / 3 chance . If the area has any special formation battles ( Back Attack , Side Attack and Pincer Attack ) the chance of getting them is calculated first . These battles have the player at a disadvantage , but a mastered Pre - Emptive Materia helps protect against these battles by halving the chances of the disadvantageous ones . The game uses two types of check to detect whether or not a party member has a mastered Pre - Emptive Materia equipped : a single character check and a global check . The single character check is made whenever the player changes Materia or Equipment . If the character does not have a mastered Pre - Emptive Materia the game will remove the " Ambush Alert " bonus , which halves the chance of Back and Pincer Attacks , and it doesn ' t matter if another character does actually have a mastered Pre - Emptive equipped . The global check is used when entering the menu or exiting the PHS screen by running the single character check on each character in the party in turn , starting from the top . What this means is that only the bottommost character in the party counts for whether they have a mastered Pre - Emptive Materia equipped . After the game has ascertained whether the player gets the Ambush Alert bonus or not , and a random battle is about to begin , it will go through the four possible special formation battles for the area in the following order : The game first checks for the Back Attack formations . It ' s impossible to get a preemptive attack with these battles , but the Ambush Alert reduces the chance of Back Attacks by half . The next check is for the Side Attack , where the enemy is in the middle and the player characters on the sides . The final possible battle is a Pincer Attack where the player characters are surrounded by enemies . Ambush Alert reduces the chance of Pincer Attacks by half . The game rolls a random number between 0 and 63 to determine if a special formation battle occurs and which of the special battles it is . The way encounters are decided on the world map are slightly different : instead of a single random value being used for all four types of special attack formations , they are checked individually . This means the chance of not getting a special attack formation on the world map is not the sum of the chances , but instead the three chances of not getting a Back Attack , not getting a Side Attack and not getting a Pincer Attack multiplied together . When the party is being back attacked the characters are normally facing away from the enemies , unless they are equipped with the Sprint Shoes , in which case the character never faces away at the start of battle . Characters facing away from enemies don ' t take double damage when attacked from behind , however , so the effect is merely cosmetic . By pressing and , as if trying to escape , will also immediately reverse the characters ' direction at a back attack . Some boss battles can be fought as preemptive battles if they have been flagged as " preemptive attack is possible , escape is impossible and the battle finishes with a victory fanfare " . However , the only screens that allow a preemptive attack are those where random battles can be encountered . That ' s why the player can never preempt Rufus , for example , because no random encounters can be fought in the screen he is fought , even if the battle itself enables preemptive . Likewise , if random battles are temporarily disabled on a screen , the player will never get a preemptive attack for any battles until random battles are enabled . As such , the only boss battles that can have a preemptive attack are Aps in the Midgar sewers , Jenova∙BIRTH in Cargo Ship , with in Gongaga , Snow in the Great Glacier cave , and Reno , Rude and in Midgar winding tunnel . Watch a video of it here . In a few special battles that are not back attacks , some of the back attack rules still apply : the Change command to change row is greyed out , the enemies start with an empty ATB gauge and one ' s first physical attack will deal double damage . This happens in the battles fought as Yuffie in the Wutai Village pagoda , and Cloud ' s final showdown against Sephiroth . Some enemies take more than double damage from back attacks : Air Buster takes five times normal damage , Aps quadruple damage , and Acrophies eight times normal damage . The battle with Ruby Weapon will always start as if the party has been back - attacked . Although no back attack message will appear , the party starts with an empty ATB gauge and Ruby Weapon gets a double physical damage bonus until it is successfully attacked . Cait Sith ' s Slots Limit Break has two outcomes that usually end the battle : Death Joker and Game Over . Death Joker usually kills all allies , and Game Over usually kills all enemies . If the battle is a Side or Pincer attack , however , the attacks can only target one enemy or ally party . " Final Fantasy VIII " . The player can guard against back attacks with Cerberus ' s Alert ability , although it does not protect against fixed encounters , such as the second fixed Ruby Dragon battle at Deep Sea Research Center before fighting Bahamut . The Initiative ability allows the unit to begin battle at full ATB bar , but there is no ability to increase the rate of preemptive strike . " Final Fantasy IX " . Freya can learn the Initiative support ability that boosts the party ' s chance to get a preemptive strike from from 16 / 256 to 85 / 256 . The Alert ability removes the chance of back attacks from 24 / 256 to 0 % . Zidane ' s ability What ' s That ! ? can be strategically used to have enemies turn around , allowing for constant back attacks . " Final Fantasy X " . Without the Initiative ability , there is a 12 . 5 % chance of being Ambushed , and a 12 . 5 % chance of getting a Preemptive strike . With Initiative , there is a 25 % chance of Preemptive strike and all Ambushes are eliminated ( except certain enemy encounters ) , as long as the character with Initiative is in the active party . The player can use the First Strike ability to always get a turn first , even while being ambushed . This is especially useful because characters can be swapped during battle . There are some enemy encounters that will always ambush the party regardless of equipment . Only three enemies are capable of this : the Great Malboro ( Omega Ruins and Monster Arena only ) , the Malboro Menace and the first battle against Dark Yojimbo . In the Tros battle the player can use a Trigger Command called Pincer Attack to surround the boss from both sides . " Final Fantasy XIII " . In " Final Fantasy XIII " the player can preempt the enemies , but the enemies cannot ambush the party . The player can begin the battle with a preemptive strike by engaging an enemy in battle before the exclamation mark appears above them . If the enemy is already engaged in battle with another enemy and they don ' t detect the party , the enemies will concentrate on each other until one side is dead before attacking the player party . However , if the enemies detect the player before the start of the battle , both enemy parties tend to concentrate on attacking the player party . When a preemptive strike takes place , the player party starts with full ATB bars , and all enemies start with almost full Stagger gauges . The player can use a Deceptisol to make themselves invisible to enemies , and thus always preemptive them , with the oretoise and ochu enemies as exceptions . " Final Fantasy XIII - 2 " . Unlike " Final Fantasy XIII " the leader and the other playable character will attack the surprised enemies in a preemptive strike with a wide slash , where in the previous game , only the party leader would attack . A preemptive strike is performed using a new gameplay element called Mog Clock and gives the party Haste . Similarly to the preceding game , these battles begin with full ATB gauges but the stagger gauge only fills up to 120 . 0 % . Starting a battle with preemptive 50 times earns the player the Quick Draw achievement / trophy , and if the player gets 100 consecutive preemptive strikes with the Mog Clock , they earn the Clock Stopper achievement / trophy . " " . Enemies appear on the field and the player can strike at the foes as long as they haven ' t depleted their action meter by sprinting for too long . If the player strikes at an enemy from the front , they start the battle at " Good " battle condition with the enemy starting with 10 % of their HP already lost . If the player strikes at an enemy from behind , the enemy starts with 25 % of their HP already lost . If the player comes into contact with an enemy without striking them with their weapon , they are considered to have been ambushed , and start the battle with 5 % of their HP lost . " Final Fantasy Type - 0 " . Random battles engaged on the world map can start as ambushes or as first strikes , in the addition of normal engagements . If the party pre - emptives the enemies the opponents either start with a disadvantage — such as with Killsight on them , dying in one hit if one is fast to hit them — or the player party begins with a random buff . If the enemies ambush the party , the opponents start with an advantage , such as the Rage status , or the party starts in a disadvantage , such as in the Killsight or Stop status . If the option to replay the battle against higher level enemies comes up , the attack formation from the first battle does not carry over . " Final Fantasy Mystic Quest " . Certain battles in " Mystic Quest " will always constitute an Unexpected Attack or a Strike First . A certain Battlefield north of Focus Tower consists entirely of Unexpected Attacks . " Final Fantasy Legend II " . Random battles in " Final Fantasy Legend II " has a chance of starting with either a Strike First or an Unexpected Attack . " Final Fantasy Legend III " . Random battles in " Final Fantasy Legend III " has a chance of starting with either a Strike First or an Unexpected Attack . It should be noted that boss battles can also start a battle with an Unexpected Attack . Strike First and Unexpected Attack are governed by the party ' s average level versus the enemy ' s average level . If the party ' s average level is higher , First Strike will occur more frequently . But if the party ' s average level is lower , Unexpected Attack will occur more frequently .