Octagon Rod (Final Fantasy IX)

The Octagon Rod is Vivi's seventh staff in Final Fantasy IX, obtained after the events in Desert Palace. It is a missable weapon, and if the player does not buy it before entering the Shimmering Island portal, Vivi will never learn his third tier elemental spells. The Octagon Rod has innate Trouble status used through Add Status, and allows Vivi to absorb Water and Wind while also strengthening his Water spell.
==Obtain==
The Octagon Rod is bought for 4500 gil from Esto Gaza after the events at Desert Palace, and from Daguerreo. It becomes impossible to buy once the player enters the Shimmering Island portal, and thus the player should make sure to get it at the earliest opportunity.
==Mechanics==
The Octagon Rod's damage dealt with a normal Attack is determined as follows everywhere but within Ipsen's Castle:
:Base = 29 - Enemy's Defense
:Bonus = Strength + A random value 0 ... [(Level + Strength) / 8]
:Damage = Base * Bonus 
The damage is then modified by variables like Vivi's row position and the enemy's Protect. Under Mini, his Bonus would be 1. If Vivi 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:
:Base = 31 - Enemy's Defense
The Octagon Rod has innate Trouble; Vivi will trouble the susceptible target of his Attack 1/10th of the time when he has Add Status equipped. Equipping the Octagon Rod has Vivi absorb double damage from Wind (as it also makes him weak to Wind) and normal damage from Water, while also strengthening Vivi's Water spell to deal 150% of its normal damage, which also doubles against an enemy's elemental weakness (though Water is a rare weakness in an enemy).
==Use==
Even if acquired at the earliest, Vivi may already have the stronger High Mage Staff from a chocograph treasure. It is still worth swapping to learn the third tier elemental spells that the Octagon Rod teaches, which remain useful until the endgame.
The Trouble status from the weapon is hardly worth using, even if Add Status only costs three Magic Stones, as Final Fantasy IX has a dearth of enemy groups and it only works 1 out of 10 uses of Attack even if the enemy is weak to the status. The more useful properties are the Octagon Rod's elemental absorptions and its strengthening effect on Vivi's Water spell. Vivi could equip the Octagon Rod for the battle against Quale to absorb their Water spells, and against Yans and Silver/Nova Dragon to absorb their Wind attacks. The Water-enhancement is not as useful as it may seem though as few enemies are weak to Water, and the Octagon Rod already teaches the more powerful third tier elemental spells, which Vivi may get more use out of.
==Gallery==
OctagonRod.png|Artwork.
Octagon Rod.png|Strategy guide scan.
Category:Weapons in Final Fantasy IX