Junction system

thumb|250px|Squall's Junction screen.
Junction system is a character development system designed by Hiroyuki Ito for Final Fantasy VIII. By collecting magic from items, draw points and enemies, the player can junction their magic stocks to their attributes via Guardian Forces to grow stronger. Using the Junction system is the superior method of growth compared to leveling up or weapon-upgrading.
Lore-wise, junctioning allows the user to replicate the powers of a sorceress via the storage and control of magical powers and Guardian Forces. The system can store 32 different forms of Para-Magic with a stock of up to 100 charges of each spell. Users siphon magic (via a process known as drawing) from living beings, the environment around them, or even machinery, and store it for casting or junctioning. Through junctioning, Para-Magic can grant its users near-superhuman abilities, such as increased speed and strength, and being able to use magic.
The game's original Japanese version has a Junction glitch that lets the player junction the same spell to more than one stat. The glitch was fixed in the western localizations.
==Mechanics==
===Junctioning magic to attributes===
The Junction system is not based on the traditional specialization of weapons and armor in a typical Final Fantasy game, and because in general enemies' scale to the player party's level, simply leveling up does not help gain an advantage. Without utilizing the Junction system, characters cannot use abilities other than Attack during battle.
The player can customize their party by junctioning Guardian Forces (GF) to them and grant them stat upgrades, ability commands that can be used in battle, and elemental and status ailment attack/resistances. What precisely can be upgraded depends on the GFs the player has junctioned, and what the GFs have learned.
The player can upgrade stats and/or attack/resistances by attaching magic to the attributes provided a GF junctioned to the character has learned the corresponding Junction ability. The more magic junctioned, the better the effect. Different types of magic have different effects when junctioned. To upgrade basic stats, for example HP and Strength (Str), any magic can be used, but some magic will have a greater effect on certain stats; for example, junctioning the Haste spell to the character's Speed stat gives a bigger boost than junctioning Scan or Fire.
Squall and Seifer use gunblades that have native perfect hit rate and their critical hits are manually triggered. Thus, the Hit-J and Luck-J Junction abilities are pointless on them.
Upgrading elemental attacks/resistances (Elem-Atk/Elem-Def) (if the GF has learned the abilities) generally requires elemental magic. Junctioning Fire to an Elem-Def stat will increase a character's resistance to fire-elemental attacks; the more Fire magic junctioned, the better the resistance. Some other magic will provide multiple resistances, notably Ultima that provides resistance for all elements. Junctioning elemental magic to the Elem-Atk stat will cause the character's normal attack to posses an elemental property, giving advantage against some enemies.
Similarly, upgrading status ailment attacks/resistances (ST-Atk/ST-Def) (if the GF has learned the abilities) generally requires magic that causes or cures status ailments. Junctioning Death to ST-Def will make a character resistant to instant death attacks, while junctioning Death to ST-Atk will allow a character to cause instant death when executing a normal attack.
The player can choose to auto assign magic to stats, Elem-Atk/Def and ST-Atk/Def by using the Auto command in the junctioning menu. The player can auto assign magic giving priority to Strength, Magic or Defense; despite the name of the last one, choosing Defense in fact prioritizes HP.
===Ability junctioning===
To use command abilities in battle (and in the case of Draw, in the field), characters require them to be junctioned. The abilities available depend on the GFs junctioned, but do not require magic. In the same way, the Character/Party support abilities also require junctioning, but do not require magic. A character starts out with two support ability slots, but can gain three or four. For example, if a GF has learned the ability HP+20%, it must be junctioned to one of the slots to be activated.
==Junction values==
Spell 	HP	Str 	Vit 	Mag 	Spr 	Spd 	Eva 	Hit 	Luck
Ultima 	60	1.00	0.82	1.00	0.95	0.60	0.24	0.60	0.60
Full-life 	48	0.20	0.80	0.20	0.85	0.08	0.04	0.08	0.20
Water 	3 	0.20	0.14	0.18	0.14	0.12	0.04	0.18	0.13
Aero 	3 	0.17	0.10	0.16	0.10	0.20	0.08	0.22	0.15
Esuna 	5 	0.06	0.36	0.12	0.36	0.03	0.02	0.03	0.10
Aura 	34	0.70	0.22	0.24	0.24	0.10	0.02	0.50	0.40
Quake 	26	0.40	0.20	0.40	0.20	0.07	0.03	0.30	0.12
Demi 	16	0.34	0.18	0.36	0.18	0.12	0.04	0.14	0.10
Cure 	2 	0.04	0.15	0.04	0.15	0.03	0.02	0.02	0.02
Cura 	5 	0.08	0.28	0.08	0.28	0.04	0.02	0.03	0.03
Curaga 	22	0.20	0.65	0.20	0.65	0.10	0.04	0.10	0.10
Confuse 	7 	0.22	0.18	0.28	0.18	0.18	0.04	0.08	0.08
Silence 	1 	0.06	0.05	0.12	0.10	0.04	0.02	0.03	0.02
Thunder 	1 	0.10	0.04	0.10	0.04	0.08	0.03	0.10	0.08
Thundara 	2 	0.15	0.08	0.15	0.08	0.12	0.04	0.16	0.12
Thundaga 	14	0.30	0.16	0.30	0.16	0.14	0.04	0.20	0.14
Shell 	4 	0.06	0.18	0.10	0.40	0.03	0.02	0.03	0.14
Stop 	8 	0.18	0.20	0.30	0.24	0.48	0.10	0.20	0.10
Sleep 	1 	0.06	0.05	0.12	0.10	0.04	0.04	0.03	0.02
Slow 	5 	0.12	0.16	0.20	0.20	0.40	0.08	0.10	0.10
Zombie 	8 	0.15	0.24	0.15	0.12	0.02	0.01	0.02	0.02
Double 	2 	0.15	0.06	0.18	0.06	0.10	0.03	0.40	0.02
Death 	18	0.22	0.22	0.38	0.58	0.10	0.04	0.10	0.38
Dispel 	10	0.12	0.38	0.16	0.60	0.08	0.04	0.08	0.14
Triple 	24	0.70	0.10	0.70	0.10	0.70	0.16	1.50	0.30
Tornado 	30	0.48	0.24	0.42	0.24	0.33	0.13	0.38	0.14
Drain 	4 	0.13	0.30	0.20	0.24	0.06	0.02	0.05	0.04
Berserk 	3 	0.13	0.08	0.14	0.08	0.05	0.02	0.04	0.03
Bio 	7 	0.24	0.15	0.24	0.15	0.05	0.02	0.04	0.04
Fire 	1 	0.10	0.04	0.10	0.04	0.08	0.03	0.10	0.08
Fira 	2 	0.15	0.08	0.15	0.08	0.12	0.04	0.16	0.12
Firaga 	14	0.30	0.16	0.30	0.16	0.14	0.04	0.20	0.14
Blind 	1 	0.06	0.05	0.12	0.10	0.03	0.02	0.30	0.02
Blizzard 	1 	0.10	0.04	0.10	0.04	0.08	0.03	0.10	0.08
Blizzara 	2 	0.15	0.08	0.15	0.08	0.12	0.04	0.16	0.12
Blizzaga 	14	0.30	0.16	0.30	0.16	0.14	0.04	0.20	0.14
Flare 	32	0.56	0.26	0.44	0.26	0.12	0.03	0.26	0.12
Break 	10	0.20	0.20	0.34	0.35	0.10	0.04	0.10	0.12
Protect 	4 	0.06	0.40	0.10	0.18	0.03	0.02	0.03	0.14
Haste 	5 	0.12	0.16	0.20	0.20	0.50	0.08	0.10	0.10
Pain 	28	0.42	0.38	0.60	0.45	0.04	0.01	0.04	0.40
Holy 	38	0.55	0.28	0.45	0.48	0.10	0.07	0.24	0.14
Meteor 	46	0.75	0.34	0.52	0.34	0.30	0.12	0.40	0.22
Meltdown 	15	0.24	0.80	0.20	0.20	0.03	0.02	0.12	0.08
Scan 	1 	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.03	0.02	0.03	0.03
Regen 	26	0.18	0.70	0.18	0.60	0.08	0.04	0.08	0.08
Reflect 	20	0.14	0.46	0.20	0.72	0.10	0.04	0.08	0.16
Life 	12	0.08	0.50	0.10	0.50	0.04	0.02	0.03	0.04
Float 	2 	0.08	0.15	0.08	0.15	0.16	0.04	0.12	0.20
Apocalypse	42	0.80	0.80	0.80	0.90	0.30	0.12	0.30	0.30
===Elemental===
====Attack====
Spell 	Elemental	Value (%)
Water 	Water 	1.0
Aero 	Wind 	0.8
Quake 	Earth 	1.0
Thunder 	Thunder 	0.5
Thundara	Thunder 	0.8
Thundaga	Thunder 	1.0
Tornado 	Wind 	1.0
Bio 	Poison 	1.0
Fire 	Fire 	0.5
Fira 	Fire 	0.8
Firaga 	Fire 	1.0
Blizzard	Ice 	0.5
Blizzara	Ice 	0.8
Blizzaga	Ice 	1.0
Holy 	Holy 	1.0
====Defense====
Spell 	Elemental 	Value (%)
Ultima 	All 	1.0
Full-life	All 	0.4
Water 	Water 	1.5
Aero 	Wind 	0.8
Quake 	Earth 	2.0
Thunder 	Thunder 	0.5
Thundara 	Thunder 	0.8
Thundaga 	Thunder 	1.5
Shell 	All 	0.2
Tornado 	Wind 	2.0
Bio 	Poison 	1.5
Fire 	Fire 	0.5
Fira 	Fire 	0.8
Firaga 	Fire 	1.5
Blizzard 	Ice 	0.5
Blizzara 	Ice 	0.8
Blizzaga 	Ice 	1.5
Flare 	Thunder, Fire, Ice	0.8
Protect 	Thunder, Fire, Ice	0.2
Holy 	Holy 	2.0
Meteor 	Earth, Wind 	1.5
Life 	All 	0.3
Float 	Earth 	0.5
===Status===
====Attack====
Spell 	Status 	Value (%)
Confuse	Confuse 	1.00
Silence	Silence 	1.00
Stop 	Stop 	1.00
Sleep 	Sleep 	1.00
Slow 	Slow 	1.00
Zombie 	Zombie 	1.00
Death 	Sudden Death 	1.00
Drain 	Drain 	1.00
Berserk	Berserk 	1.00
Bio 	Poison 	1.00
Blind 	Darkness 	1.00
Break 	Petrify 	1.00
Pain 	Poison, Darkness, Silence	1.00
====Defense====
Spell 	Status 	Value (%)
Full-life	Death 	0.40
Esuna 	Berserk, Confuse, Curse, Darkness, Petrify, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Slow, Stop	0.20
Aura 	Curse 	2.00
Confuse 	Confuse 	1.00
Silence 	Silence 	1.00
Stop 	Stop 	1.00
Sleep 	Sleep 	1.00
Slow 	Slow 	1.00
Zombie 	Zombie 	1.00
Death 	Death 	1.00
Dispel 	Drain 	0.50
Drain 	Drain 	1.00
Berserk 	Berserk 	1.00
Bio 	Poison 	1.00
Blind 	Darkness 	1.00
Break 	Petrify 	1.00
Pain 	Poison, Darkness, Silence, Curse 	1.00
Holy 	Death, Drain, Confusion, Zombie, Sleep, Curse, Berserk, Poison 	0.40
Reflect 	Poison, Petrify, Darkness, Confusion, Silence, Berserk, Slow, Stop, Sleep 	0.25
Life 	Death 	0.20
==Other appearances==
===Final Fantasy XIV===
Junction Titan and Junction Shiva are abilities used by Eden's Promise in Eden's Promise: Eternity. It uses them to draw upon the Warrior of Light's memories of Titan and Shiva, granting it their abilities. In the Savage version, the Oracle of Darkness uses Junction Loghrif to awaken her powers.
 can use "Draw and Junction" in content. It allows for the use of the combo and grants buffs to the user depending on the selected target's role, and can select both enemies and allies. These buffs affect the Junctioned Cast action.
* While under the effect of Junction Tank, the action changes to , which reduces damage taken and inflicts counter damage.
* While under the effect of Junction Healer, the action changes to , which heals and applies a regen healing effect to the target.
* While under the effect of Junction DPS, the action changes to , which deals heavy damage to a target.
===Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy===
Ultimecia's EX Mode is to junction Griever. In her EX Mode, in addition to the standard Regen status and increased probability for critical hits, Ultimecia gains the special attack Time Crush, which stuns opponents for several seconds upon a successful execution.
Ultimecia's EX Mode remains Junction Griever in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy.
===Final Fantasy Brave Exvius===
===Final Fantasy Trading Card Game===
Junction is a game mechanic possessed by Final Fantasy VIII character cards. When a Forward uses Junction, they pay the Summon cost for an Eidolon card in their hand (as well as the cost to use the Forward's Junction ability, if applicable) and remove that Eidolon from the game. As long as that card is removed from the game, the Forward is now considered "Junctioned" and gains various abilities that differ for each card.
Category:Character growth systems
Category:Final Fantasy VIII