Celes (Final Fantasy VI party member)

Celes is a playable character in Final Fantasy VI. Celes is a Rune Knight and strikes balance between physical and magical skill. She is the starting party member of the World of Ruin and one of three characters required to recruit to complete the game.
==Battle==
===Stats===
Celes has balanced stats overall. Her Strength and Speed are decent, her Stamina is average and her Magic is high. Her Evasion is decent and her Magic Evasion is above average. Alongside Terra, she's the only party member who can learn some spells naturally while leveling up. Their stats are similar, although Terra has better Magic, MP and Magic Defense, while Celes's other stats are higher. 
Name 	Initial Stats
Strength 	34
Speed 	34
Stamina 	31
Magic 	36
Attack 	16
Defense 	44
Evasion 	7%
Magic Defense 	31
Magic Evasion 	9%
Escape Success 	4
HP Gain 	44
MP Gain 	15
Level Averaging	+0
Level	HP 	MP 	EXP 	+
1 	44 	15 	0 	
2 	55 	19 	32 	
3 	67 	23 	96 	
4 	81 	28 	208 	
5 	98 	33 	400 	
6 	118 	39 	672 	
7 	140 	45 	1056 	
8 	164 	52 	1552 	
9 	190 	60 	2184 	
10 	217 	68 	2976 	
11 	245 	77 	3936 	
12 	275 	86 	5080 	
13 	310 	96 	6432 	
14 	349 	106	7992 	
15 	393 	116	9784 	
16 	443 	126	11840 	
17 	497 	136	14152 	
18 	554 	147	16736 	
19 	615 	158	19616 	
20 	680 	169	22832 	
21 	747 	180	26360 	
22 	816 	191	30232 	
23 	888 	203	34456 	
24 	964 	215	39056 	
25 	1043	227	44072 	
26 	1125	239	49464 	
27 	1211	251	55288 	
28 	1301	264	61568 	
29 	1396	277	68304 	
30 	1495	290	75496 	
31 	1595	303	83184 	
32 	1696	316	91384 	
33 	1798	330	100088 	
34 	1900	344	109344 	
35 	2003	358	119136 	
36 	2107	372	129504 	
37 	2213	386	140464 	
38 	2320	401	152008 	
39 	2428	416	164184 	
40 	2538	431	176976 	
41 	2649	446	190416 	
42 	2762	461	204520 	
43 	2876	477	219320 	
44 	2992	493	234808 	
45 	3109	509	251000 	
46 	3228	525	267936 	
47 	3348	541	285600 	
48 	3470	558	304040 	
49 	3595	575	323248 	
50 	3723	592	343248 	
51 	3853	608	364064 	
52 	3984	623	385696 	
53 	4117	637	408160 	
54 	4251	650	431488 	
55 	4387	662	455680 	
56 	4524	673	480776 	
57 	4663	683	506760 	
58 	4805	692	533680 	
59 	4949	700	561528 	
60 	5094	707	590320 	
61 	5241	713	620096 	
62 	5389	718	650840 	
63 	5539	723	682600 	
64 	5691	729	715368 	
65 	5844	735	749160 	
66 	5999	742	784016 	
67 	6155	749	819920 	
68 	6313	756	856920 	
69 	6473	764	895016 	
70 	6635	772	934208 	
71 	6795	780	974536 	
72 	6950	788	1016000	
73 	7101	796	1058640	
74 	7246	803	1102456	
75 	7386	810	1147456	
76 	7522	817	1193648	
77 	7654	823	1241080	
78 	7780	829	1289744	
79 	7900	835	1339672	
80 	8017	841	1390872	
81 	8130	846	1443368	
82 	8240	851	1497160	
83 	8348	856	1552264	
84 	8453	861	1608712	
85 	8555	866	1666512	
86 	8655	871	1725688	
87 	8753	876	1786240	
88 	8848	882	1848184	
89 	8940	888	1911552	
90 	9030	894	1976352	
91 	9118	900	2042608	
92 	9205	906	2110320	
93 	9290	913	2179504	
94 	9373	921	2250192	
95 	9455	930	2322392	
96 	9535	940	2396128	
97 	9618	951	2471400	
98 	9704	963	2548224	
99 	9792	976	2637112	
===Equipment===
Celes joins the party equipped with a Hairband. She is able to equip all swords but for the Apocalypse, which is exclusive to Terra, and some daggers and maces. Her armor encompasses all shields and all heavy armor, female-exclusive equipment, and most hats, light armor, and robes. Celes's equipment draw is almost identical to Terra's, the sole differences being the Cotton Robe (which is exclusive to Terra) and their exclusive ultimate weapons in the Dragons' Den—while Terra equips the Apocalypse, Celes has Save the Queen, won from the Blue Dragon in Dragons' Den.
Due to when she is available in the World of Balance, Celes's equipment draw for the first half of the game is not of great importance, as she is more useful for her magic and falls short to the player's other options for physical attackers. She has more utility while exploring the Magitek Research Facility, where the Flametongue, Icebrand, and Thunder Blade allow her to use elemental attacks against enemies with elemental weaknesses.
In the World of Ruin, Celes is best used with the Enhancer, which grants +7 Magic, the largest possible boost a weapon can give. With a Genji Glove, she can dual-wield two Enhancers for +14 Magic. Terra and Locke surpass her as physical attackers—Terra has the Trance ability to boost her damage output and Locke has all-around superior physical stats and better weapon access. However, Celes is still useful as a mage and against bosses and other powerful enemies that prominently use magic. Her ultimate weapon, Save the Queen, heightens this supportive role by offering her boosts to Evasion and Magic Evasion while Terra's boosts all her stats and allows automatic critical hits at the cost of MP.
====Weapons====
Daggers	Swords	Maces	Universal
*Dagger
*Mythril Knife
*Man-Eater
*Gladius	 	
*Chain Flail
*Morning Star	
*Unarmed
*Impartisan
====Armor====
Shields	Helmets	Body Armor
 	 	
===Abilities===
Celes's unique ability is Runic, which absorbs the next magical attack cast by any enemy or ally, Celes recovering an amount of MP equal to the MP cost of the absorbed attack. Celes must be equipped with a compatible weapon to use Runic. This encompasses swords (except for the Ultima Weapon), daggers, spears, katanas, and the Magus Rod. Through the Swordless Runic bug, Celes is sometimes able to use Runic without a compatible weapon. Runic persists until it absorbs a spell or until Celes is given another command.
Celes's elemental affinities bestowed by her equipment affect how much MP is recovered; if the element is resisted, MP recovery is halved; if the element is a weakness, MP recovery is doubled; if the element is negated, MP recovery is reduced to 0; and if the element is absorbed, then Celes will take MP damage. Equipping the Celestriad or Gold Hairpin on either Celes or the caster to change the MP cost of spells has no effect on the MP gained. Spells cast when attacking with weapons cannot be absorbed.
Runic cannot absorb Quake, Tornado, Meteor, Meltdown, Teleport, Quick, all summons, Snowstorm used by Umaro, and all magical attacks from the unique abilities of other party members, like Slot. The exception is Rage; susceptible abilities that Gau uses while under Rage will be absorbed. Magical attacks exclusive to enemies vary on whether they can be absorbed: all of those that can cost the enemy 20 MP, with the exception of Hyperdrive, which costs 0 MP but is still vulnerable to Runic.
Runic has circumstantial uses throughout the game. Against magic-heavy enemies it is invaluable and can nullify much of their offense. Knowledge of an enemy's attack patterns is key to smart use of Runic, else Celes will waste turns having Runic prepared when no vulnerable attacks are imminent. Getting the most efficient use out of Runic requires the proper party composition that can fight at full strength without needing magic. Aside from characters who prominently use physical attacks, Strago is also a good choice as his Lores cannot be absorbed.
Celes's Desperation Attack is Spinning Edge, which deals magical damage to one enemy.
Along with Terra, Celes is the second party member to naturally learn magic without equipping magicite. Compared to Terra, who learns healing and attack spells, Celes focuses on attack and status magic. Celes learns the Blizzard line of spells, contrasting with Terra's Fire spells. Celes's ability to use magic makes her an excellent party member during the search for Terra after the Battle for the Frozen Esper—enemies around Kohlingen, Jidoor and Zozo are very powerful, making Celes's curative spells very helpful.
In the SNES version, and possibly other versions, Celes does not learn Confuse from level averaging. If Celes levels up past or to 32 due to level averaging, but does not reach at least 40, she will learn Haste but not Confuse. Both Haste and Confuse are supposed to be learned at level 32, but due to the way her natural spell list is ordered, and the way the list is sorted during level averaging, Confuse is lost because Berserk is learned at level 40. This is due to Berserk being stuck between Haste and Confuse.
This is due to Celes's learning spell list order:
* Level 32 Haste
* Level 40 Berserk
* Level 32 Confuse
The effect of the bug is mitigated as every character can learn magic through magicite.
Magic 	Level
Blizzard	1
Cure 	4
Poisona 	8
Imp 	13
Magic 	Level
Libra 	18
Protect 	22
Blizzara	26
Haste 	32
Magic 	Level
Confuse 	32
Berserk 	40
Blizzaga	42
Vanish 	48
Magic 	Level
Hastega	52
Holy 	72
Flare 	81
Meteor 	98
==Quests==
===Recruitment===
In the World of Balance Celes is recruited during Locke's scenario in the Three Scenarios. Due to the bypass event glitch, it is possible to complete Locke's Scenario without recruiting her, in which case come the Battle for the Frozen Esper she will be replaced with Moghan, one of the ten moogles. Because Moghan has no unique ability, and cannot change her equipment or use espers, it is recommended not to do this.
Celes is a required party member during the expedition to the southern continent, spanning from the end of Zozo to the final area of the Magitek Research Facility. She rejoins the party at the end of the World of Balance after the Floating Continent rises.
The World of Ruin begins with Celes as the only party member available. She is a required character until the player raises the Falcon and unlocks the ability to freely change party members. Because only Celes, Edgar and Setzer need to be recruited to acquire the Falcon, the player could immediately enter the final dungeon and defeat the final boss using only them. This is known in the fandom community as a "CES challenge".
===Story role===
If Celes and Locke are in the party when visiting Kohlingen and seeing Rachel, the scene will be slightly longer with Celes going back to see Rachel after the party leaves.
Celes has unique dialogue when speaking to Ramuh in Zozo.
Celes must perform at the Opera House to proceed with the game. (See the associated quest on the Opera House page for details.)
Aboard the Floating Continent when confronting Emperor Gestahl, if Celes is not currently in the party, a cutscene plays of her arriving on the scene. When the party escapes the Floating Continent shortly after, Celes will join the party as the fourth character if she was not already present; if she was already in the party, the party will remain with only three members.
If Sabin is recruited during the start of the World of Ruin when Celes is the only character, she will have specific dialogue for the scene. If the player recruits Sabin later, generic dialogue will be used, even if Celes is in the party.
If Celes is in the party that finds Locke at the end of the Phoenix Cave, she will have an additional line directed to Locke.
When the party first enters Kefka's Tower, a small cutscene plays of them worrying what the loss of the Warring Triad would mean for magic and espers. If the player has recruited Strago, he will speak up during this scene. If he was not recruited, Celes will have additional dialogue similar to what he would have said.
==Gallery==
FF6CelesSprites.PNG|Sprite sheet of Celes (SNES/PS/GBA).
FF6 iOS Celes Sprites.png|Sprite sheet of Celes (Mobile/PC).
Celes Runic Animation FF6 SNES.gif|Animated sprite of Celes using Runic (SNES/PS/GBA).
Celes Spellcasting Animation FF6 IOS.gif|Animated sprite of Celes casting a spell (Mobile/PC).
Celes from FFVI Pixel Remaster spellcasting sprite.gif|Animated sprite of Celes casting a spell (Pixel Remaster).
FF6SNES Celes Victory Pose.gif|Animated sprite of Celes's victory pose (SNES/PS/GBA).
Celes Victory Animation FF6 IOS.gif|Animated sprite of Celes's victory pose (Mobile/PC).
Celes from FFVI Pixel Remaster victory sprite.gif|Animated sprite of Celes' victory pose (Pixel Remaster).
FFVI Spinning Edge.PNG|Spinning Edge.
Category:Character gameplay in Final Fantasy VI