Mythril Dagger (Final Fantasy IX)

The Mythril Dagger is Zidane's third dagger-type weapon in Final Fantasy IX. It teaches him the Bandit support ability that allows his Steal to not miss, but does not guarantee the steal results in an item.
==Obtain==
The player can steal the Mythril Dagger from the Sealion at the end of Ice Cavern in a battle that the player must take on with Zidane alone. This makes stealing in this battle more cumbersome than other battles, and the player may want to skip trying for the Mythril Dagger, as it can soon be bought from shops anyway: Lindblum (first and second storyline visits), Treno, Black Mage Village (before going through Shimmering Island portal), Madain Sari, Alexandria, Esto Gaza (before Desert Palace), Daguerreo (before going through Shimmering Island), and Bran Bal.
The player can also find a Mythril Dagger in Treno, in Doctor Tot's tower, when visiting the town as Princess Garnet.
==Mechanics==
The base damage dealt with normal attack is determined as follows everywhere but within Ipsen's Castle:
:Base = 18 - Enemy's Defense
:Bonus = Strength + Rnd MOD ([(Level + Strength) / 8] + 1)
:Damage = Base * Bonus 
Where Rnd means a random number, while MOD means modulus operation. "Rnd MOD x" can be read as a random number between 0 and x-1.
The damage is then modified by variables like Zidane's equipped killer abilities or MP Attack, his row position, and the enemy's Protect. If Zidane is under Mini, his Bonus will be 1.
When in Ipsen's Castle, the stronger weapons do less damage than weaker weapons, and the Base part of the damage formula is altered to:
:Base = 42 - Enemy's Defense
==Use==
If the player struggles stealing the Mythril Dagger from the Sealion, the player can skip it and simply buy it fairly soon after this boss. It is stronger than Zidane's preceding Mage Masher, and comes with a new ability, Bandit. Though Bandit does improve Zidane's Steal, it will still commonly miss on the rare steals until the player gets Master Thief much later, and it will not be a massive benefit to have for the battles against Black Waltz 2 and Black Waltz 3 before the player can get to Lindblum and buy the dagger there, and where the player can craft superior thief swords as well. However, it is worth procuring and equipping a Mythril Dagger even if better thief swords are available just to learn Bandit, as the only other equipment piece that teaches it will not be available until much later on.
Mythril Daggers are needed in making Angel Bless, Exploda, and Rune Tooth; to make them all, the player will need to use four Mythril Daggers. If the player nabbed the two free ones from Sealion and Treno, they will need to buy two more from shops.
Even though Zidane's battle model wields two weapons when he is equipped with a Mythril Dagger, this is merely cosmetic and the player can only equip him with one weapon.
==Gallery==
Mythril Dagger FFIX Art.jpg|Artwork.
Mythril Dagger FFIX.png|Strategy guide scan.
==Etymology==
Category:Weapons in Final Fantasy IX