Armor Shot (Final Fantasy VIII)

Armor Shot is one of the best Limit Breaks for Irvine in Final Fantasy VIII. It deals strong physical damage to an enemy depending on his Strength stat, ignoring the enemy's Vitality stat. It is used with AP Ammo. When Shot initiates, the player has a variable amount of time to fire at their chosen target (the player can re-targeting during) with and cancel with . Ammo cannot be swapped amid a Shot action. Armor Shot has slow firing speed, but is not the overall slowest ammunition type. The time allotted for shooting depends on Irvine's Crisis Level, a hidden calculation in the game. Limit Breaks are randomly available when Irvine is on low health or under Aura.
==Obtained==
Irvine can use Armor Shot when the player has AP Ammo is the inventory. AP Ammo is refined Chef's Knife (1=20) and Sharp Spike (1=10) with Ifrit's Ammo-RF. The player can also get 5 from the G-Soldier in Grease Monkey's house in Fishermans Horizon when visiting with Irvine alone.
Chef's Knives are obtained from Tonberries and their cards; the first area of Centra Ruins only has Tonberries. Sharp Spikes drop from Armadodo, Death Claw, and Grand Mantis, are mugged from Grand Mantis, and are card-modded from Grand Mantis (1=1) and Death Claw cards (1=1).
==Mechanics==
Armor Shot deals armor-piercing non-elemental physical damage to an opponent, each hit's damage calculated as per the following formula:
:Critical Determination
:Critical\% = (Luck + 1) / 256 \times 100
Where "Luck" is Irvine's Luck stat. If the hit criticals, it will deal double damage.
:Base Damage Calculation
:Damage = Strength^2 / 16 + Strength
:Damage = Damage \times (265 - 0) / 256
:Damage = Damage \times 80 / 16
Where "Strength" is Irvine's Strength stat, and the enemy's "Vitality" is simply 0. For comparison, the Power value of a normal attack is 20, meaning one hit from Armor Shot, whose Power value is 80, is four times stronger than using his Attack command before even factoring the armor-piercing effect; the damage potential increases further from being able to fire consecutively and the guarantee that the shot will not miss.
All damage is randomized slightly:
:Damage = Damage \times ([0..32] + 240) / 256
The time Irvine has for Shot depends on his Crisis Level in the following manner:
:Crisis Level 1: 8 s
:Crisis Level 2: 12 s
:Crisis Level 3: 20 s
:Crisis Level 4: 26.6 s
Crisis Level is a hidden stat calculated based on how low Irvine's current HP is compared to his maximum, the number of dead allies, and the number of ailments he is afflicted with. The worse off he is, the longer Shot times the player can expect. Crisis Level is also raised with the Aura status.
One round of Armor Shot takes 1.8 seconds from the timer. This makes it among the slower shots: only Canister Shot and Hyper Shot are slightly slower still.
Even though the ammo has armor-piercing properties, if the target has Protect, damage is still halved. Shot will not awaken sleeping enemies.
Limit Breaks never miss and are unaffected by Elem-Atk junctions.
==Use==
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Armor Shot is one of Irvine's best Limit Breaks, being very strong and ignoring enemy's defense to physical damage. When using Armor Shot, the player does not need Vit 0, whereas this would be needed for all his other Shots to get the best result.
Armor Shot is excellent throughout the whole game, and stacks up the longer the Shot time is. It is best used against tough enemies, such as bosses and those with high defense, like Tonberries and Adamantoises. It is worth leveling Ifrit up to Level 10 before Irvine joins the party to use his Ammo-RF, and procure Sharp Spikes and/or Chef's Knives, such as from Triple Triad cards with Quezacotl's Card Mod.
Irvine should be junctioned toward high Strength to make the most of his Limit Breaks. The Guardian Forces that have Str-J natively are Shiva, Ifrit, Brothers, Pandemona, and Cerberus. It is also worthwhile to give Irvine any Str+% abilities. Because each hit has a chance of being a critical hit, Irvine is also an excellent choice for Luck-J and Luck+50%; the only GF that has Luck-J natively is Cactuar, but Luck-J Scroll is available from some sidequests to give to the GFs Irvine is junctioning. However, Armor Shot may more easily reach the 9999 damage cap even without a critical hit, and so is a good choice of ammo if Luck junctions are not available.
Armor Shot fires slowly, but is very powerful, even more so than the even slower Canister Shot used with Demolition Ammo. For the best chance of getting the maximum timer, the player can have Irvine in critical HP and have him under Aura status. However, Aura spells and stones are rare.
Armor Shot would be especially good when fighting Tonberries in the Centra Ruins for the purposes of calling forth Tonberry King. The player can keep Irvine in low health and give him Initiative, if available, and use three Armor Shots per Tonberry at the start of the battle to instantly win. The Chef's Knives that the Tonberries drop will refine into further AP Ammo.
Armor Shot is also good against Adamantoises, which the player may want to fight for their good spoils, however, Quistis's Degenerator can be even handier for this. Armor Shot would be good in all boss battles, and especially so against Adel where the player must not use group-hitting attacks; the boss previous to Adel also had Aura for drawing, and so the player may have gotten a good stock to last until the end of the game. It would also be good against Diablos though the player has likely already defeated him by the time Irvine joins. Irvine's shots are good against any sleeping enemies for not awaking them; one strategy against Ruby Dragons is to put them to sleep and then damaging them with abilities that will not awake them. Irvine's limitation is that he may run out of certain types of ammo, especially during long battles where he uses his Shot extensively.
==Citations==
Category:Shots in Final Fantasy VIII