Minerva's Plate (Final Fantasy IX)

The Minerva's Plate is an endgame light armor piece in Final Fantasy IX for female characters. It teaches High Tide, which allows the character enter Trance more frequently, and Restore HP, which restores HP to the character when they survive an attack in Near Death. The plate gives a bonus to the wearer's Strength and Magic when they level up with it equipped and is needed for synthesis.
==Obtain==
The Minerva's Plate is found in Terra. After crossing the bridge toward Bran Bal, there is a chest visible in the lower left of the area reachable by hugging the left wall to find a path there. It is also bought for 12,200 gil from the moogle in Bran Bal, and from Daguerreo after visiting Bran Bal.
==Mechanics==
The Minerva's Plate provides 34 Defense and 1 Magic Defense, mainly mitigating damage from physical attacks. The vest gives a +1 bonus to the wearer's Strength and a +2 bonus to the wearer's Magic when they level up with it equipped. When enough "bonuses" upon level up from gear have been accrued, the character gains a permanent stat increase. Strength factors into damage calculations and HP growth, and Magic factors into spells' damage calculations and for the character's MP growth.
==Use==
The Minerva's Plate is a good light body armor for female characters, though Dagger and Eiko might rather wear high level robes, and the party could already have the superior Rubber Suit from the Earth Guardian. The Minerva's Plate is good for the events in Pandemonium, and after the player returns to the world map, they can synthesize it into the Rubber Suit.
The abilities from Minerva's Plate are nothing special. The characters may have mastered High Tide already, and Restore HP for Freya is not important as she can just use Auto-Regen, which is better. The plate's level up bonuses, meanwhile, are good and are what the player will miss out on in synthesizing the plate into the Rubber Suit. Minerva's Plate is obtained late into the game, about the time it becomes worthwhile to start level grinding and min-maxing if the player wants to grind their stats, though doing these is unnecessary in a normal playthrough even when preparing for superbosses. The Magic +2 bonus is more relevant for Dagger and Eiko, as Freya only uses Magic for MP growth. For level grinding, the Minerva's Plate is among the best light armor offerings, along with the Dark Gear's Spirit +3. 
Beatrix can also wear the Minerva's Plate though the player cannot equip her with it in a normal playthrough.
==Etymology and origin==
Minerva's Bustier is a recurring female-exclusive equipment piece in the Final Fantasy series. 
Category:Armor in Final Fantasy IX