Kaiser Knuckles (Final Fantasy IX)

The Kaiser Knuckles is Amarant's eighth claw in Final Fantasy IX, but can be used as his final weapon as it is compatible with Elem-Atk gear. It teaches him the Flair abilities Countdown, which attempts to doom an enemy, and Curse, which makes an enemy weak to a random element. All of Amarant's weapons besides his final weapon teach Counter, a passive ability that lets him respond to being physically attacked with an Attack of his own. Though it takes a lot of AP to master, this is inconsequential as all of Amarant's weapons have Counter until the final dungeon, and it is impossible to de-equip him of a weapon altogether.
When Amarant equips the Kaiser Knuckles with Add Status, he has a 15% chance of troubling an enemy, making all its cohorts take passive damage when the troubled one is hit. The Kaiser Knuckles' standout feature is that it deals Wind damage with Attack, meaning it is good against flying enemies, and its power can be boosted via equipment, making it a good endgame weapon even if it is not considered Amarant's ultimate weapon.
==Obtain==
The Kaiser Knuckles is found in Chocograph 15, Dusk Plains, once the player has the Hilda Garde III and Choco is at least mountain-crossing. The player needs to fly the airship to the Forgotten Continent's chocobo footprints just north of this area's Qu's Marsh, call for Choco with a Gysahl Green and head south until the skies turn to dusk. The treasure is southwest, near the coast on a cliff in an inset between the rocky bits.
The Kaiser Knuckles are also stolen from the Silver Dragon and afterward, bought for 18,000 gil in Daguerreo.
==Mechanics==
The Kaiser Knuckles' damage dealt with a normal Attack is determined as follows everywhere but within Ipsen's Castle:
:Base = 75 - Enemy's Defense
:Bonus = Strength + A random value 0 ... [(Level + Strength) / 8]
:Damage = Base * Bonus 
The damage is then modified by variables like Amarant's row position and equipped Killer abilities and MP Attack, as well as the enemy's Protect. Under Mini, his Bonus would be 1. If Amarant 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 the minimum possible value.
With Add Status active, the Kaiser Knuckles troubles a susceptible enemy 15% of the time when using Attack, Charge!, or Counter. The knuckles deal Wind damage with these commands as well, dealing 150% damage to enemies weak to Wind, half damage to those who resist Wind, no damage to those who nullify Wind, and healing those who absorb Wind. Wearing the Kaiser Knuckles, Amarant's No Mercy is also Wind-elemental, but will not be boosted via Elem-Atk. The gear that strengthen Kaiser Knuckles' damage with Attack to 150% (also stacks against enemy's weakness to Wind) are Bracer, Black Belt, and Fairy Earrings. Equipping multiples of these simultaneously does not stack the effect.
==Use==
If obtained at the earliest by prioritizing Chocobo Hot and Cold progression, the Kaiser Knuckles will be Amarant's strongest weapon for world map exploration with a flying transport, Terra, and Pandemoniumm up until the player can synthesize the stronger Duel Claws when the Black Mage Village gets new wares. However, as the damage from the Kaiser Knuckles can be boosted to 150% via equipment, and flying enemies are weak to Wind (this includes Ozma, Hades, and the final bosses), Kaiser Knuckles may be preferable over the Duel and Rune Claws, which also lack any new Flairs if the player got all previous weapons for Amarant. The player could keep the Kaiser Knuckles equipped as Amarant's final weapon from the point they obtained them, though the Avenger still has one more (fairly useless) ability for him: Demi Shock.
Countdown is not a particularly useful ability as it misses often and the game has numerous other "instant defeat" statuses already that are probably better than Doom, though Amarant could use it against Yans. However, Zidane gets a much better way to inflict the status: Masamune with Soul Blade.
It is probably not worth equipping Add Status with the Kaiser Knuckles even if it only takes three Magic Stones, as the Trouble status is only useful against enemy groups, which are few and far between late in the game; the only ones the player is likely to encounter are against the aforementioned Yans (which are best defeated via Zidane's Soul Blade+Masamune, or Dagger's Atomos/Steiner's Climhazzard + Freya's Dragon Breath), as well as against groups of Mistodons (which are easily defeated with Life magic or Phoenix Downs). Zidane again has a superior way of inflicting it with Soul Blade.
==Gallery==
Kaiser Knuckles FFIX Art.jpg|Artwork.
Kaiser Knuckles FFIX.png|Strategy guide scan.
==Etymology==
Category:Weapons in Final Fantasy IX