The End (Final Fantasy VIII)

The End is Selphie's ultimate Limit Break in Final Fantasy VIII that defeats all enemies instantly, including bosses, unless they are undead. It is one of her four unique Slot spells, the others being Full-cure, Wall, and Rapture, but is so rare that the player may finish numerous playthroughs without seeing it once. Slot is randomly available when Selphie is on low health or under Aura.
==Mechanics==
The End instantly defeats all enemies who are not undead, securing the player a win; this includes bosses and superbosses. The End ignores Reflect. If the battle is a multi-phase battle, like X-ATM092 during the Siege of Dollet, or the final bosses, using The End moves the battle along to the next phase instead.
How often The End appears in Slot depends on Selphie's level and Crisis Level. Crisis Level is a hidden stat in the game; the lower Selphie's health, the more KO'd active party members she has, and the more ailments she is afflicted with, the higher the Crisis Level. The way the mechanics work, Selphie has a chance to get The End until level 40. She then loses the ability to roll The End until she is at level 80. The most reliable chance to get The End is at level 80–89, at less than 11.2% HP and with Aura (Aura needs to be active when starting Slot, but it does not matter if it wears off while shuffling through the spells).
The enemies The End does not work on are Blood Soul, Forbidden, Gerogero, and Abadon.
==Use==
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The End is an instant win against most enemies, and so is the most desirable outcome of Selphie's Slot. However, Slot is the most unpredictable Limit Break in the game and the player is likely better off not relying on it. Slot rolls random spells from a pool independent of Selphie's Luck stat, but high Crisis Level makes better spells more likely. The End is the rarest spell to appear in Slot, being absent entirely between levels 40 and 80, and the best chance being on LV80+.
The End is essentially a more potent version of Selphie's Rapture or Odin/Gilgamesh's Zantetsuken, working on enemies the aforementioned do not. However, the skill's rarity means that the player cannot plan their strategies around using it. It would be most beneficial to appear against tough opponents, like Adel (it will not defeat Rinoa), Jumbo Cactuar, Bahamut, Ultima Weapon, Omega Weapon, and in the final battles. The very final boss has a scripted sequence in the end where the boss makes a speech when on 0 HP and any attack against it simply gives the next line of the speech; using The End there would simply bring up the next line.
One trick to have Selphie stay safer when using Slot is to use Defend and then on her next turn use Slot (the player can tap to repeatedly try for a Limit Break when on low health). This keeps Selphie immune to physical damage while the player rolls though the spell options. The player can also summon Carbuncle to protect from magic damage, but this only works against regular spells, not against all enemy-exclusive magic abilities.
==Citations==
Category:Slot-exclusive magic in Final Fantasy VIII