Mage's Hat (Final Fantasy IX)

The Mage's Hat is a light armor headgear in Final Fantasy IX. It is a mid tier hat for mages that teaches the Black Magic spell Fira, which deals Fire damage to enemies, and Loudmouth, which inoculates against Silence. Leveling up with the Mage's Hat equipped provides a minor bonus to the character's Magic, and it strengthens the wearer's Holy and Shadow damage.
==Obtain==
The Mage's Hat can be bought for 600 gil in Cleyra, Lindblum (second storyline visit), Fossil Roo, Black Mage Village (before going through the Shimmering Island portal), and Daguerreo (endgame).
==Mechanics==
The Mage's Hat provides 14 Magic Defense, mitigating damage from magic attacks. The hat minorly boosts the wearer's Magic when they level up with it equipped. When enough "level up bonuses" from gear have been accrued, the character gains a permanent stat increase, though they would need to level up multiple times with +1 gear for noticeable stat gain.
The hat strengthens the wearer's Holy and Shadow damage by 50%. This affects Vivi's Doomsday, Dagger's Ark, Quina's LV4 Holy, and Eiko's Holy and Madeen. However, bar Quina's LV4 Holy, these abilities will be available much later than when the Mage's Hat can first be bought.
==Use==
The Mage's Hat is a good equipment piece to wear for both its alright stats and stat-boosting effect, as well as the abilities it teaches. Fira is a good spell for Vivi to learn, though he should already have access to Flame Staff. Equipping both would let him master Fira at double the pace. Loudmouth is useful for mage characters; though not many enemies use Silence, some of the toughest late game bosses employ many status ailment attacks.
The stat boost from leveling up with the Mage's Hat is most useful for Vivi, Dagger, and Eiko, whereas Quina does not need much Magic for their Blue Magic spells, their effects mostly depending on other factors. However, Quina is the first one able to make use of the hat's Holy-strengthening effect with LV4 Holy: when the party arrives to the Outer Continent, Quina could use LV4 Holy on Zaghnols, Griffins, Myconids, and Zemzeletts with the Mage's Hat equipped. The other mages will likely have better Holy- or Shadow-strengthening gear available by the time they gain the abilities that benefit from the boost.
Level grinding or min-maxing is unnecessary in a normal playthrough and the player can prioritize gear based on their defensive offerings and abilities, and still be able to do any encounter in the game with the right strategy. The best stat-boosting gear is available in the endgame, and so for best stats one would need to limit their level ups until near the end of the game. 
Category:Armor in Final Fantasy IX