Crusader (summon)

Crusader is an esper in Final Fantasy VI who can be acquired as a magicite. It is the ultimate esper, but summoning it also harms the player's party.
==Profile==
Crusader is made up of three entities: Demon is on the left, Devil is on the right, and Goddess in the upper middle. According to the 20th Anniversary Ultimania, the Crusader contains a fragment of the power of the Warring Triad, but the three beings that appear when summoning Crusader do not greatly resemble the Triad.
==Story==
The only information on Crusader comes from a scholar in Albrook that found a 1000-year old text: "Eight dragons seal away its awesome might...the might of the one called Crusader... And when the eight shall fall, the one again shall rise..."
When the party defeats the eight legendary dragons, they receive the Crusader magicite.
==Gameplay==
Crusader costs 96 MP to summon. Its attack is Cleansing (Purifier in the Super NES and PlayStation versions), which deals non-elemental magic damage to both the enemy party and the ally party. Its spell power is 190, and it is unblockable and ignores Split Damage. Its level up bonus is +50% MP; MP always increases when a character levels up, but with Crusader, the character gains 150% of the base.
Crusader is entirely useless as a summon; due to its high power, it will likely kill the entire party, unless they have Reraise status or extremely high Magic Defense. Even with the party able to survive Crusader's summoning, it is still bound by the damage cap, and by the time the player acquires it, the party has many other means to deal maximum damage to all enemies each turn without Crusader. Its level up bonus is not very useful either: except for a few specific levels a character will only gain 10-15 MP at level up, so it would take many levels with Crusader to have a noticeable benefit.
===Spells===
Unless the party goes out of their way to enter Kefka's Tower earlier and defeat the Skull Dragon and Gold Dragon, Crusader will likely not be obtained until late into the game. By this time the party likely has access to Ultima, which is superior to the Meteor that Crusader teaches in almost every way; the only difference is that Meteor ignores split damage and is not vulnerable to Runic. Ultima has such higher power than Meteor that it will likely deal maximum damage to all enemies in spite of the split damage penalty. Some unusual strategies could be employed with Meltdown by giving the party equipment to absorb fire or wind-elemental damage, allowing Meltdown to damage all enemies and heal the party.
*Meteor x10
*Meltdown x1
==Other appearances==
===Final Fantasy Record Keeper===
Crusader appears as an end-game series of Crystal Dungeon challenges and rank 6 magicite summons. There are eighteen versions of the Crusader boss and magicite, varying in elemental and attribute affinities. 
Crusader will cast Cleansing when summoned, which instantly deals three damage cap breaking prismatic-elemental attacks that ignore the target's defenses. Depending on the magicite type, the attacks will either be physical or magic damage. The summon also provides the additional effect of increasing all elemental attack power by 1 for the entire party when the magicite is in effect.
;Abilities
Depending on the version, Crusader also uses the following abilities after being summoned into battle:
Name	Trigger Rate (Start) 	Trigger Rate (Max) 	
 	100% 	100% 	
 	Deal defense-ignoring physical prismatic damage to a single enemy. Long range and breaks damage cap.Lowers elemental resistance of all elements by 1 level.	Deal defense-ignoring physical prismatic damage to a single enemy. Long range and breaks damage cap.Lowers elemental resistance of all elements by 1 level.	Deal defense-ignoring physical prismatic damage to a single enemy. Long range and breaks damage cap.Lowers elemental resistance of all elements by 1 level.
 	100% 	100% 	
 	Deal defense-ignoring magic prismatic damage to a single enemy. Breaks damage cap.Lowers elemental resistance of all elements by 1 level. 	Deal defense-ignoring magic prismatic damage to a single enemy. Breaks damage cap.Lowers elemental resistance of all elements by 1 level. 	Deal defense-ignoring magic prismatic damage to a single enemy. Breaks damage cap.Lowers elemental resistance of all elements by 1 level.
==Non-Final Fantasy guest appearances==
===Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable===
Crusader is a chance card in Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable, the card's ability: Upgrade your target house value by 50%.
==Gallery==
AmanoCrusader1.jpg|Devil artwork by Yoshitaka Amano.
AmanoCrusader2.jpg|Goddess artwork by Yoshitaka Amano.
FFVI iOS Crusader Sprite 1.png|Devil (2014 mobile/Steam).
FFVI iOS Crusader Sprite 2.png|Demon (2014 mobile/Steam).
FFVI iOS Crusader Sprite 3.png|Goddess (2014 mobile/Steam).
FFVI Crusader.png|(GBA).
Cleansing from FFVI 2014.jpg|(2014 mobile/Steam).
==Behind the scenes==
Prior to the release of the Pixel Remaster, Crusader's Japanese name was Jihad . The name has been localized as Crusader for several reasons with each release—the original SNES release had the name changed due to censorship practices caused by Nintendo of America's strict localization policies at the time, and later ports not using the name due to cultural and religious sensibilities towards the Islamic faith.
With the release of the Pixel Remaster, Crusader's Japanese name was changed to Doomsday , reusing the English name of the Doomsday spell from Final Fantasy IX, which was also previously known as Jihad in its Japanese release. 
==Etymology==
==Citations==
de:Zelot
Category:Espers in Final Fantasy VI
Category:Magicite in Final Fantasy VI