Rune Claws (Final Fantasy IX)

The Rune Claws is Amarant's ultimate claw in Final Fantasy IX. It teaches him the Flair abilities Spare Change, which expends gil to deal fixed damage; Demi Shock, which damages an enemy by 20% of its maximum HP; and Revive, which resuscitates a KO'd ally. The Rune Claws is the only weapon for Amarant that lacks Counter, but he should have mastered it by the time the Rune Claws is obtained unless the player neglected to use Amarant in battle.
When Amarant equips the Rune Claws with Add Status, he will blind an enemy 30% of the time he uses Attack, making their physical attacks miss. Obtaining it yields the The Ultimate Claws achievement/trophy in the versions that support an achievements system.
==Obtain==
The Rune Claws is found in the left corner of Memoria's Time Interval room.
==Mechanics==
The Rune Claws' damage dealt with a normal Attack is determined as follows everywhere but within Ipsen's Castle:
:Base = 83 - Enemy's Defense
:Bonus = Strength + A random value 0 ... [(Level + Strength) / 8]
:Damage = Base * Bonus 
The damage is then modified by variables like Amarant's row position and equipped Killer abilities and MP Attack, as well as the enemy's Protect. Under Mini, his Bonus would be 1. If Amarant equips Healer, damage is converted to healing.
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 the minimum possible value.
With Add Status active, the Rune Claws blinds a susceptible enemy 30% of the time when using Attack, Charge!, or Counter. When blinded, the enemy's physical attacks will often miss.
==Use==
The Rune Claws will be Amarant's strongest weapon for the rest of the final dungeon and the final bosses, though the player could still backtrack and leave the final dungeon to complete optional content after finding the weapon. However, the Rune Claws does not teach any unique abilities and Amarant will do more damage with the Kaiser Knuckles most of the time if he equips Elem-Atk gear with it.
Though Darkness is not a particularly useful ailment to inflict onto enemies, Add Status only takes three Magic Stones and so is a small cost for a potential small boon, though it will not be much help in any of the boss battles the player still has left to fight. The player can get a similar effect to Darkness from Distract, though not every party member learns it and the two also stack.
If Amarant did not master some of his Flairs yet, he can do so from the Rune Claws. The most useful ability from it is Revive, which brings a KO'd ally back to life and is stronger than Life or Phoenix Down.
==Gallery==
Rune Claws FFIX Art.jpg|Artwork.
Rune Claws FFIX.png|Strategy guide scan.
Category:Weapons in Final Fantasy IX