Haste (Final Fantasy IX)

Haste is a Wht Mag spell in Final Fantasy IX for Eiko, used to bestow the status of the same name that speeds up one target's ATB gauge. Haste is vulnerable to Reflect and would work with Return Magic were enemies to use it on the player party; Cactuars use it upon themselves.
==Obtained==
Eiko learns Haste from Fairy Flute, Running Shoes, and Emerald for 30 AP. She can use it as soon as she joins the party at the Conde Petie Mountain Path if the party got an Emerald from the Cleyra high priest. The next chance for an Emerald is from the Nymph outside the Iifa Tree as part of the friendly monsters sidequest.
She could also learn Haste from the Running Shoes if the party already defeated the Tantarian optional boss, but this is quite difficult during the first chance. Fairy Flute is an exceedingly rare steal from the Hilgigars boss at the end of the mountain path, to the point most players opt to skip it and simply buy the flute later from Oeilvert or Desert Palace.
==Mechanics==
Haste bestows the Haste status to one target at the cost of 6 MP, which expedites the rate the target's ATB gauge fills by 50%. This also means that all other statuses that also depend on ATB speed lapse faster and "tick" faster for statuses like Regen and Poison. When cast on a target who has Slow, Haste removes Slow instead.
:Status duration = Spirit * 320
The status duration takes into account Battle Speed as set in the Config.
The support ability that affects Haste is Reflect-Null, which allows Haste to pierce target's Reflect.
In Eiko's Trance, Wht Mag turns into Dbl Wht where Eiko can cast two spells on her turn. The spells cost MP and expend the Trance gauge independently.
==Use==
Haste helps the affected get more turns in battle. It can be useful to bestow to a party member to act more often during a long battle. However, this may only marginally increase their turn rate due to how the battle system works in Final Fantasy IX, where animation time also consumes status durability unless the status is bestowed via a support ability. As such, once available, the player may opt to use Auto-Haste instead; before this, casting Haste should only be done in longer battles.
Whether Haste is applied via the skill or auto-ability, player may still find that—depending on the length of the battle, and the animation time of the actions taken—instead of getting more turns, the turns simply queue up faster. This is because ATB runs during animations, but since no one else can act during an animation, the commands simply sit in a queue. Haste can thus be detrimental, as it makes other statuses expire faster; while this is beneficial in case of status ailments, it hurts anyone with Protect or Shell (or Doom or Gradual Petrify) especially.
The superior way to bestow Haste to the party is by summoning Carbuncle with an Emerald as Eiko's Add-on so she casts Emerald Light, giving everyone in the player party Haste. When this is available to the player, it is a better way to bestow the statuses than casting the Haste spell on individual party members.
Haste coupled with Auto-Regen is a powerful combination, as Regen will heal twice as often; if the character has high Spirit, in the highest battle speed setting, they will get topped up once every second.
Haste can be used to cure Slow, which is cheaper than using Dispel. The target's speed returns to normal; to give them Haste, the player would need to use the Haste spell twice.
Category:White Magic in Final Fantasy IX