Leather Plate (Final Fantasy IX)

The Leather Plate is an early game light armor piece in Final Fantasy IX for Zidane and Amarant, though the latter will not join for a while after the plate first becomes available. It teaches Chakra, which lets Amarant replenish an ally's HP and MP. The Leather Plate halves Ice damage to the wearer.
Like many equipment pieces in Final Fantasy IX, the Leather Plate is based on the armor piece of the same name from Final Fantasy Tactics.
==Obtain==
The Leather Plate is first stolen from Black Waltz 2. Soon after, it is found in Lindblum's church , by climbing the ladder near the organ at the back of the room. The player should pick it up during the first storyline visit to Lindblum, as it will not be available later.
The Leather Plate is also bought for 530 gil in Lindblum (second storyline visit), Treno (when Princess Garnet and Steiner visit with Marcus), and Black Mage Village (before entering the Shimmering Island portal). There is no need to buy one if the player stole one from the Black Waltz or found the one in the church, as it is not needed for synthesis.
The plate could be missable altogether if the player never stole it or picked it up from the church, as the shops that stock it eventually stop selling it. However, the Leather Plate does not offer anything unique.
==Mechanics==
The Leather Plate provides 8 Defense, minorly mitigating damage from physical attacks. It halves Ice damage to the wearer. If the character also equipped a Reflect Ring weakening them to Ice, the character would take ~75% damage from Ice attacks.
==Use==
The player could equip the Leather Plate onto Zidane after stealing it from Black Waltz 2 but before Black Waltz 3 appears, and for the Festival of the Hunt, but the superior Bronze Vest is already available to discover outside the pub in Lindblum; the player could skip wearing the Leather Plate altogether as it does not teach any skills to Zidane. Amarant, likewise, could skip it as he can also learn Chakra from his starter weapon; however, it is possible to have a better weapon for him as soon as he joins, and so the player could swap him a new weapon and instead equip him with the Leather Plate to master Chakra at the earliest, as it is a useful ability to have all throughout the game.
The Ice-halving effect can be useful against Black Waltz 3, the enemies from Alexandrian army fought in Gizamaluke's Grotto, Cleyra's Trunk, and Alexandria Castle, and Lani in Fossil Roo.
The guest characters from Tantalus can also wear the Leather Plate. Cinna and Blank are in the party too early for the player to be able to equip them with the Leather Plate in a normal playthrough, but Marcus can wear it during the time he is traveling with Dagger and Steiner, though there is no obligation to outfit him and he will leave the party with anything he has equipped at the moment.
Category:Armor in Final Fantasy IX