Devour (Final Fantasy VIII)

Devour is a command ability in Final Fantasy VIII used to wholly consume an enemy, removing them from the battle without dealing damage while conferring various effects on the user depending on the monster and its level. Devour does not work against bosses, human enemies, robot enemies, or even all monsters. Certain high level monsters yield stat boosts when devoured.
When using Devour, the character approaches the enemy and the screen is covered in a "censorship" screen for humor while eating sounds play for a successful attempt or a buzzer plays for a failed Devour.
==Obtained==
The ability is known by the Guardian Force Eden and is taught to any GF via the Hungry Cookpot item. Eden is the ultimate Guardian Force, drawn from the superboss at the bottom of Deep Sea Research Center, or from Tiamat in the clock tower of the final dungeon.
Hungry Cookpot is a rare item, only obtained as a rare outcome from Angelo Search or modding PuPu's card. Most players never see one in their inventory during a normal playthrough.
==Mechanics==
Depending on the particular monster and its level, the devourer may gain a permanent stat boost, recovers/loses HP, or is inflicted with negative status effects. A successful Devour can be rare, especially in regards to stat-raising effects. The enemy should be weakened to have less HP than the devourer before attempting it. With Devour, it is possible (although extremely time-consuming) to max nearly all stats. If successful, Devour will earn the player only AP and no EXP from the eaten enemy. Human enemies, robotic enemies (the biologically engineered enemy SAM08G is an exception, however), and bosses cannot be devoured.
After a successful Devour, comments will be made on screen displaying the effect. If the target's HP is greater than the user's HP, Devour will fail and the target will take 8 damage, though "miss" will still be displayed.
Otherwise, Devour follows the following formula:
:Devour \% = 100 \times ((AttackerHP - TargetHP) / AttackerHP)
Comment 	Effect 	Enemy 	
"All systems go!" 	Full Cure and raise HP by 10. 	Ruby Dragon ≥LV45 	
"Gained strength" 	Full Cure and raise Strength stat by 1. 	T-Rexaur ≥LV30 	
"Feel healthier" 	Full Cure and raise Vitality stat by 1. 	Adamantoise ≥LV30 	
"Clear head!" 	Full Cure and raise Magic stat by 1. 	Behemoth ≥LV40 	
"Increased morale." 	Full Cure and raise Spirit stat by 1. 	Malboro ≥LV30 	
"Light on my feet!" 	Full Cure and raise Speed stat by 1. 	PuPu 	
"Refreshing!" 	Full Cure and remove all status effects 	Adamantoise <LV30, Blue Dragon ≥LV20, Cactuar ≥LV30, Chimera, Mesmerize ≥LV20, Tonberry, Torama ≥LV30	
"Delicious 	!" 	Full Cure 	Armadodo, Abyss Worm, Behemoth <LV40, Blobra, Blue Dragon <LV20, Cactuar LV20–29, Caterchipillar, Death Claw, Fastitocalon, Gayla, Grand Mantis, Grendel, Hexadragon, Mesmerize <LV20, Ruby Dragon <LV45, SAM08G, Snow Lion, T-Rexaur <LV30, Thrustaevis, Torama <LV30, Turtapod, Wendigo
"Tastes okay..." 	50% HP Recovery 	Bite Bug, Buel, Cactuar <LV20, Fastitocalon-F, Gesper, Glacial Eye, Imp, Jelleye, Red Bat 	
"No good!" 	Nothing happens. 	Blitz, Elastoid <LV30, Geezard <LV20, Iron Giant, PuPu LV<20 	
"Couldn't devour!" 	Nothing happens. 	Creeps, Elnoyle, Lefty, Righty, Slapper, UFO?, Vysage 	
"Tastes funny..." 	Petrify status. 	Cockatrice <LV30 	
"Can't see anything" 	6.25% of Max-HP damage and Darkness. 	Belhelmel, Funguar <LV20 	
"It's rotten..." 	6.25% of Max-HP damage and Zombie. 	Blood Soul, Forbidden, Tri-Face <LV30 	
"Tastes awful 	!" 	12.5% of Max-HP damage and Poison. 	Anacondaur <LV30, Elastoid ≥LV30, Funguar LV20–29, Geezard ≥LV20, Grat, PuPu LV20–29
"Barf...Bwahhh 	!" 	50% of Max-HP damage and Poison. 	Funguar ≥LV30, Ochu, Tri-Face ≥LV30
"Shouldn't have...eaten...it"	75% of Max-HP damage and Poison, Darkness, Silence, Sleep, Slow, and Curse.	Anacondaur ≥LV30, Bomb, Malboro <LV30 	
To devour monsters exclusive to Laguna Loire's scenarios, the player would need to get a Hungry Cookpot from Chocobo World, as in a normal playthrough the player cannot have Devour usually before they have a flying transport, or technically before they can visit Esthar City Pet Shop to learn Angelo Search.
If the character who equips the Devour command becomes confused, they will never try to use Devour in this state.
==Use==
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Some monsters grant permanent stat boosts when eaten. All enemies must be their highest level tier to yield this result. If the player eats PuPu, they cannot get his card. Collecting stat boosts with Devour may be faster than farming/menu grinding for stat boost items, but is much inferior to level grinding with Bonus abilities. 
The player can use LV Up to get the enemy to the suitable range for stat boost effect to happen. Malboro has the most extreme difference in Devour outcome depending on level: under LV30 it gives the worst outcome, whereas LV30 and above it yields a stat boost.
The enemy needs to have less health than the devourer, and so the devourer benefits from HP-J and HP+% abilities. As enemy level and thus their HP vary even from battle to battle, the player can use Scan to check their condition, and use the fractional damage abilities Demi and Micro Missiles to deal damage without killing the target. The player can also deliberately do small damage by physically attacking without Str-J junctions. Putting enemies to sleep first can let the player get many Devour attempts without the enemy retaliating. For the strong high level, using Kamikaze on them with a different character may leave them on a suitable HP range.
Though Deep Sea Research Center would be a good place for devouring Behemoths for their bonus to Magic, defeating the boss that yields Eden stops enemies appearing at the dungeon, and the player generally needs Eden to have access to Devour. Island Closest to Hell would be the best devouring location for stat boosts, as T-Rexaurs, Malboros, and Ruby Dragons all appear there. However, the +10 boost to HP from eating a Ruby Dragon is so measly it may not be worth it, as HP is easy to max out without any stat boosts anyway. Long Horn Island north from Dollet is another prime devouring location, as only Adamantoises appear there, giving a Vitality boost when eaten.
Stat boosts are the only useful outcomes of using Devour; the HP replenishment and status recovery effects are not worth aiming for instead of simply using items and magic. Though using Devour also negates EXP gain, the player can already be using Card for that purpose if they want to do a low level playthrough where the enemy does not strictly need to be on lower health than the user. If the player is not min-maxing, they can ignore Devour altogether. Stat-boosting with Devour or otherwise is not necessary to get perfect stats if the player has good spells for junctions and stat+% abilities.
FFVIII Devour 1.png|"Censor" screen shown during Devour.
FFVIII Devour 2.png|
FFVIII Devour 3.png|
==Behind the scenes==
Devour failing dealing 8 damage to the target may be an allusion to number 8, as Final Fantasy VIII has numerous such instances, being the eighth main series game.
Category:Command abilities in Final Fantasy VIII