Silver Fork (Final Fantasy IX)

The Silver Fork is Quina's fourth weapon in Final Fantasy IX. Like all their forks, it deals random damage with Attack, as instead of using Quina's Strength stat as-is in damage calculation, it uses a random value up to Quina's Strength instead. Like all forks, it teaches the support ability High Tide, which lets Quina build their Trance gauge faster. As all of their weapons have High Tide, and it is impossible to de-equip a character of a weapon altogether, the high AP cost of mastering it is inconsequential. The Silver Fork rarely inflicts the target of Quina's Attack with Slow when they have Add Status active, making them act less frequently.
==Obtain==
The player could get the Silver Fork early if they grind the frog-catching minigame, as it will be rewarded for 23 frogs. As only eight frogs will spawn at one time at most, and it takes a moment for more frogs to appear even if the player leaves a "breeding pair" behind every time, the player is more likely to reach the number by the time they can head to the Outer Continent marsh, than from the Mist Continent marsh alone.
The Silver Fork can also be stolen from Tantarian, a tough optional enemy in Alexandria Castle with limited opportunities to fighting it. It is also sold for 7400 gil in Oeilvert, Desert Palace, and Esto Gaza (after Desert Palace); all of these locations become inaccessible in the endgame.
==Mechanics==
The Silver Fork's damage dealt with a normal Attack is determined as follows everywhere but within Ipsen's Castle:
:Base = 53 - Enemy's Defense
:Bonus = (A random value 1 ... Strength) + (A random value 0 ... [(Level + Strength) / 8])
:Damage = Base * Bonus 
The damage is then modified by variables like Quina's row position and the enemy's Protect. Under Mini, Quina's Bonus would be 1. If Quina 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:
:Base = 7 - Enemy's Defense
When Quina equips Add Status, using Attack (or Charge! or Counter) has a 15% chance of inflicting a susceptible target with Slow, helping the player act before the enemy more often.
Because damage with Quina's Attack is so volatile, using a randomized Strength to calculate damage, forks tend to have moderately high Attack values. Quina will still do more damage from front row than from the back row, but is not classed as physical attacker and so lacks means of enhancing their attack power via support abilities, though they do learn Counter. Quina will still do more damage overall when they have a higher Strength stat as the random value can roll higher results, and so leveling them up is not pointless. Instead of attacking, Quina can also defeat low health enemies with Eat, which is often the better ability to use whenever the enemy is within the HP threshold.
==Use==
If the player steals the Silver Fork from Tantarian during the time the party is under a time limit (a tough feat to accomplish), it will be Quina's strongest weapon for when they rejoin the party for the Fossil Roo and Outer Continent excursion. After Outer Continent, more world map transports become available and the player can easily reach the marshes and it becomes easier to get the next fork: Bistro Fork.
As Quina learns magic by eating enemies, they do not learn new abilities from weapons and so the only considerations for equipment are Add status properties and Attack Power. The Silver Fork has innate Slow. Though not the most useful effect for random encounters, unlike many other status ailments, Slow tends to work on bosses.
==Behind the scenes==
Quale wields a Silver Fork.
==Gallery==
SilverFork.png|Artwork.
Silver Fork FFIX.png|Strategy guide scan.
Category:Weapons in Final Fantasy IX