Gladius (Final Fantasy IX)

The Gladius is Zidane's fourth dagger-type weapon in Final Fantasy IX, and a jump in power over his preceding Mythril Dagger. It teaches him the Annoy and Lucky Seven skills that allow him to inflict Trouble onto an enemy and to deal fixed damage when his HP ends in seven, respectively. Gladius has an innate Slow status, able to be inflicted upon enemies with Attack when Zidane also equips Add Status.
==Obtain==
The player can steal the Gladius from Lani in Fossil Roo, which should be easy enough as the player has a full party and Lani is not too tough. The Gladius can also be bought from shops afterward: Black Mage Village (before going through Shimmering Island portal), Madain Sari, Alexandria, Treno (after returning from the Outer Continent), Esto Gaza (after Desert Palace), Daguerreo (before going through Shimmering Island), and Bran Bal.
==Mechanics==
The base damage dealt with normal attack is determined as follows everywhere but within Ipsen's Castle:
:Base = 30 - Enemy's Defense
:Bonus = Strength + Rnd MOD ([(Level + Strength) / 8] + 1)
:Damage = Base * Bonus 
Where Rnd means a random number, while MOD means modulus operation. "Rnd MOD x" can be read as a random number between 0 and x-1.
The damage is then modified by variables like Zidane's equipped killer abilities or MP Attack, his row position, and the enemy's Protect. If Zidane is under Mini, his Bonus will be 1.
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:
:Base = 30 - Enemy's Defense
Gladius's Slow effect activates when Zidane equips Add Status alongside the dagger. It has a flat 35% chance of inflicting Slow onto the enemy (that is not immune) when Zidane uses Attack.
==Use==
The abilities that Gladius teaches are nothing special and the player may easily go through the game without using either of them once, but new skills do give Zidane new Dyne abilities, and so it is worth learning them all. The Slow effect from the Gladius can also come in handy, and it has one of the best affliction chances among statuses inflicted via Add Status. However, other weapons in the game also have innate Slow, and generally Zidane is better off inflicting statuses via his thief swords and Soul Blade than Add Status with a dagger.
Gladius are needed in synthesizing Angel Bless and Sargatanas; to make them both, the player will need to use two Gladiuses. Sargatanas can itself be used in synthesis to make the Thief Gloves. If the player nabbed the free one from Lani, they will need to buy one more from shops to make the thief swords, and still one more if they want to make the Sargatanas into a Thief Gloves and have another copy of the weapon in the inventory as well.
Even though Zidane's battle model wields two weapons when he is equipped with a Gladius, this is merely cosmetic and the player can only equip him with one weapon.
==Gallery==
Gladius FFIX Art.jpg|Artwork.
GladiusFFIX.png|Strategy guide scan.
==Etymology==
Category:Weapons in Final Fantasy IX