Armor Break (Final Fantasy IX)

Armor Break, known as Armour Break in the English PAL version, is a Swd Art in Final Fantasy IX used by Steiner to attempt to halve an enemy's Defense per successful use for a cost of 4 MP.
==Obtained==
Armor Break is learned for 30 AP from the Mythril Sword, stolen from Beatrix in Burmecia and bought from Treno when Princess Garnet and Adelbert Steiner visit there with Marcus. Mythril Sword is last bought from Esto Gaza after the events in Desert Palace. As Esto Gaza will become inaccessible after entering the Shimmering Island portal, Armor Break is missable.
==Mechanics== 
Armor Break attempts to halve the enemy's Defense per use. It has a 50% base accuracy, but successive uses on the same enemy stack, greatly weakening the foe. It works on any enemy and the effect cannot be dispelled once inflicted, as the effect is a stat reduction rather than a status effect.
==Use==
Armor Break makes an enemy more susceptible to physical damage. Though the stat reduction is formidable, Break moves' downside is that Steiner is one of the party's strongest damage-dealers, and Armor Break would use his turn for something other than offense, and it may miss. Though successive moves will do increased damage to the target, if Steiner had used all his moves for dealing damage, the player could have ended up with a faster battle.
In battles where the player is "idling" while waiting for Zidane to steal all goods on offer, Steiner's Break moves may come to use: they weaken the enemy, but do not kill it off.
Instead of using Armor Break, the player could use Quina's LV3 Def-less on enemies that are susceptible (these include Ozma and the final boss); though the effect may not be as great per individual turn, it will target both the enemy's Defense and Magic Defense, never misses, and will stack like Mental and Armor Break.
==Behind the scenes==
Armor Break originates from the Knights' Rend Armor ability from Final Fantasy Tactics. After appearing in Final Fantasy IX, the Break abilities went on to appear as much more useful abilities in Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII. The debuffs in Final Fantasy XIII could also be seen as being in the same continuation.
Category:Sword Arts in Final Fantasy IX