Dragon Mail (Final Fantasy IX)

The Dragon Mail is an endgame heavy body armor in Final Fantasy IX for Freya. It teaches High Jump, which improves damage with Jump. It gives bonuses to the wearer's Strength and Magic when they level up with the mail equipped.
==Obtain==
The Dragon Mail is stolen from Silver Dragon at the top of Pandemonium. Afterward, it is also bought for 14,000 gil from Daguerreo.
==Mechanics==
The Dragon Mail provides 42 Defense, mitigating damage from physical attacks. It gives a +1 bonus to Freya's Strength and Magic stats when she levels up with the armor piece equipped. When enough "bonuses" upon level up from gear have been accrued, the character gains a permanent stat increase. Strength determines Freya's damage with her attacks and her HP growth, and her Magic stat only determines her MP growth.
==Use==
The Dragon Mail is an endgame heavy armor piece for Freya, however, other endgame armor pieces are also available. The Genji Armor has better defensive stats but only gives a level up bonus to Magic. The Grand Armor is much stronger and halves Shadow damage and also gives a level up bonus to Strength, but only Ozma and Hades and Vivi's Doomsday deal Shadow damage and in these cases Shadow-absorption would be preferable to Shadow-halving. Minerva's Plate has lower defensive stats but slightly better level up bonuses.
High Jump is good if Freya is using Jump. However, it takes a lot of Magic Stones and Freya will still do more damage with her Attack if she is in the front row and enhances her Attack with killer abilities, MP Attack, and elemental weapons.
The Dragon Mail's level up bonus to Magic and Strength are good for endgame level grinding, though grinding and min-maxing are unnecessary in a normal playthrough even for superboss encounters. The Dragon Mail becomes available around the time level-grinding becomes worthwhile as the best stat boost equipment pieces will be available.
Beatrix can also wear the Dragon Mail, but the player cannot see this in a normal playthrough.
Category:Armor in Final Fantasy IX