Twist Headband (Final Fantasy IX)

The Twist Headband is a light armor headgear in Final Fantasy IX. It is a mid tier headband that everyone but Steiner and Freya can wear, but is geared more toward physical attackers as it minorly raises Strength when the wearer levels up with it equipped. It teaches the passive abilities Add Status, which randomly imparts the status from the character's weapon on their target, and Gamble Defense, which randomizes the character's Defense stat in damage calculation but their Defense can be higher than their base stat. The headband boosts the wearer's Earth-elemental damage and is used in synthesis.
==Obtain==
The Twist Headband can be bought for 1,200 gil in the following shops after the party returns from the Outer Continent: Alexandria, Treno, Lindblum, and Daguerreo. Daguerreo stops stocking it in the endgame.
==Mechanics==
The Twist Headband provides 17 Magic Defense, mitigating damage from magic attacks. The headband minorly boosts the wearer's Strength when they level up with it equipped. When enough "level up bonuses" from gear have been accrued, the character gains a permanent stat increase, though they would need to level up multiple times with +1 gear for noticeable stat gain.
The Twist Headband gives a +50% boost to the wearer's Earth damage, but the only beneficiaries of this are Quina's Earth Shake and Fenrir's Terrestrial Rage.
==Use==
The Twist Headband is a good headgear for Zidane and Amarant for its Strength-boosting trait, and perhaps also for Quina and Eiko for its Elem-Atk property; though Earth Shake is not among the most useful Blue Magics, it is one of the few that uses Quina's stats for damage calculation. Quina can also benefit from the headband's Strength boost though they are not a straight up physical attacker like Zidane, Steiner, Freya, and Amarant. However, level grinding or min-maxing is unnecessary in a normal playthrough and the player can prioritize gear based on their defensive offerings and abilities, and still be able to do any encounter in the game with the right strategy. The best stat-boosting gear is available in the endgame, and so for best stats one would need to limit their level ups until near the end of the game.
The Twist Headband is less useful for the mages unless Eiko wants to summon Fenrir, or they need to master Add Status; Dagger could wear the Lamia's Tiara instead. As summons take a lot of MP to use, it helps to wear equipment that boosts their power to make the most of them. Add Status is needed to make use of weapons' innate statuses, but Gamble Defense is a pointless ability which the player is better off not activating as they more often than not simply take more damage from attacks with it equipped.
The Twist Headband is used in synthesis the same time it is available to buy to make the Black Belt.
Though the Tantalus thieves who join the party as guests can also wear the headband, the player cannot see this in a normal playthrough.
==Etymology==
Category:Armor in Final Fantasy IX