List of Final Fantasy VIII statuses The following is a list of status effects in " Final Fantasy VIII " . Status effects are applied by being hit by status spells and other abilities that inflict status effects . Enemies have innate immunities , but player characters must utilize the Junction system to be protected against negative statuses . The ST - ATK - J ability lets players add negative status effects to normal attacks . This can be detrimental if an ally winds up confused and attacks the party . Some positive status effects can be permanently applied to player characters via passive abilities learned by Guardian Force s . The number of status ailments on player characters is a determining factor in calculating their Crisis Level , which affects the potency of Limit Breaks . Certain Limit Breaks in the game can be used to inflict negative statuses to enemies , while others apply beneficial statuses to the party . Death / Sudden Death . Visual . Characters each have a brief and unique death animation . When allies are KO , they lay on the ground until revived and their ATB bar is emptied . Enemies fade out and are removed from the battle field after their death animation is finished . Enemies struck by Sudden Death will skip their normal death animation and simply fade out red after being struck . Effect . Sudden death is when a character is instantly killed , whereas normal Death occurs when HP reaches 0 . When all enemies are dead , it is considered a Battle Victory . When the entire party is dead , it is a Game Over . There are no scripted battles which call for death to the heroes in " Final Fantasy VIII " , so it is in the players ' best interest to survive the best they can by replenishing their HP as needed . Phoenix Downs and Life magic revive to fallen allies , but may cause instant death to undead , including targets that have the Zombie status . On the flip side , utilizing Death spells or attacks against the undead may fully replenish their HP . Guardian Forces can die if they run out of HP . Duration . Remains until cured . Poison . Visual . Afflicted unit has green bubbles above their head . Effect . When an afflicted combatant takes an action , they take damage equal to 5 to 7 % of their maximum HP . The damage is non - elemental , thus even if the player junctions the afflicted to absorb Poison damage , they still take damage . Duration . Poison remains if not cured , even after battle . Petrify . Visual . Character is turned into gray stone and becomes immobilized . Damage and healing do not affect petrified characters . Effect . Petrification flags the afflicted unit as defeated , and is thus essentially similar to the Death status . If all player characters become petrified it is a Game Over . When an enemy is petrified in battle , the player earns EXP based on the HP damage done prior to petrification . Petrify can be a useful asset to low level sessions where one might still want to gain AP but not so much EXP . Duration . The effect remains until cured , even after battle . Darkness . Visual . The afflicted has a dark cloud over around head , shrouding their vision . Effect . Darkness reduces a character ' s Hit Rate by 75 % . Characters with base hit rate of 255 % are unaffected , such as Squall and Seifer , although Darkness disables the gunblade ' s trigger making them unable to deal additional damage . Duration . Remains until cured , even after battle . Silence . Visual . The afflicted has a speech bubble with " . . . " above their head . Effect . Silence disables the Magic , Draw and GF commands . Rinoa is immune to this status during her Angel Wing Limit Break . Duration . Remains until cured , even after battle . Berserk . Visual . The afflicted turns red with steam rising out of their head . Effect . The Berserk status raises physical attack damage by 50 % , but the afflicted does nothing but attack random foes until the state is removed . Rinoa ' s Angel Wing Limit Break is similar but with magic spells instead of attacks . She is immune to Berserk when in Angel Wing as well . Duration . Remains until the end of battle unless cured . ST - ATK - J . N / A Zombie . Visual . The afflicted turns green . Effect . The afflicted receives damage from curative items and magic , and is instantly killed by Life magic and items . Targets under this status gain innate immunity to Instant Death and Doom , take double damage from Holy - elemental attacks , and become resistant to physical attacks , halving the damage . Draining HP from a Zombie unit damages the drainer , unless both the caster and the target are undead / Zombie . Duration . Remains until the end of battle unless cured . Sleep . Visual . The afflicted unit leans over with Z ' s floating above their head . Effect . Sleep temporarily prevents a character from acting , lasting for approximately 13 seconds . Regardless , the character ' s Evasion is not reduced , so it is possible they may avoid attacks while sleeping . While induced with Sleep the Protect , Shell and Regen statuses do not expire . Whereas Protect and Shell still provide physical and magical defense , respectively , Regen and Poison remain dormant until the character is reawaken . Some bosses and enemies , especially in the earlier portions of the game , are vulnerable to Sleep . By using this status effect with ST - ATK - J , players may exploit this weakness by utilizing magic spells on the inflicted , taking little to no damage throughout the whole battle . Slow . Visual . The afflicted character moves slower . ATB bars are blue . Effect . Halves the Speed of the afflicted character . Duration . Does not expire unless cured . Stop . Visual . The afflicted character is stopped in place . ATB bar is grayed out and does not move . Effect . Stop lasts for around 13 . 3 seconds , and targets under Stop are unable to avoid attacks . If the target was afflicted with any status effects prior to being stopped , the status effects are halted as well ; spells like Poison and Regen won ' t damage or heal , and effects like Protect won ' t wear off . Duration . Expires after 13 . 3 seconds or when cured . Doom . Visual . The afflicted character has red numbers above their head . Blow Away . Visual . The combatant is knocked , blown off , sliced in half of or otherwise removed from the battle field . Effect . Removes the affected character from battle . Teaching Quistis the Degenerator blue magic and sending her into combat will allow plenty of quick kills , EXP and AP . This is often used as a method to grind in areas such as the Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell , where all foes are level 100 regardless of party ' s average level . There is no curative items or spells , nor is there any ST - ATK or ST - DEF junctions related to this effect . Curse . Visual . The character is slightly darker , similar to the Darkness effect but without the smoke . The dark hue alternates as if in the manner of glowing . Effect . A cursed character is unable to use their limit break . However , if the limit break command was selected before the hero was inflicted , they will still use it . The player ' s party has no means of inflicting curse , since most enemies don ' t use Limit Breaks . Duration . Remains until cured , removed after battle . Vitality 0 . Visual . The target is discolored in a violet hue , as if to signify they are suffering from deteriorating effects or are maligned to a vulnerable state . Effect . Units afflicted by Vitality 0 have their Vitality and Spirit stat set to 0 , placing them at an extremely dangerous vulnerable position where attacks have full effect without the factor of defense . Duration . Remains until the end of battle unless cured . The End . Visual . The effect places the target in a cinematic movie - esque montage that evokes a happily ever after type ending ; upon the end of the sequence , the target is instantly defeated akin to the manner of Blow Away and Death , either never seen again in regards of monsters , or are subdued or subject to their destruction in regards to bosses . Effect . With the exception of Undead monsters , any opponent , including bosses , are instantly defeated ; resistance to instant death is bypassed and ignored . Enemies cannot afflict this effect , being player only accessible . Aura . Visual . The afflicted unit glows a yellow gold hue . Effect . The Crisis Level of an afflicted unit greatly escalates , allowing either the player to easily access Limit Breaks , or for opponents and monsters to access higher level attacks akin to that manner . Protect . Effect . When the target is struck by a Physical attack , a steep concave blue light shield manifests . Effect . Targets under this effect have any Physical type damage afflicted to them reduced by half . Shell . Visual . When the target is struck by a Magical attack , a wide spherical magenta light barrier manifests . Effect . Any Magic based damage afflicted to the target is reduced by half .