Battle Speed

Battle Speed is a setting in the game's config that determines how fast the units' ATB bars fill up, and can also determine many other things affected by battle time, such as how long status effects last.
==Appearances==
===Final Fantasy IV===
The battle speed can be adjusted between six different settings, three being the medium, one being the fastest and six the slowest. A character's Speed will also determine their own personal gauge's charge rate, with some armor and accessories causing this stat to increase or decrease. This can be even further manipulated upon with spells such as Haste, Slow, and Stop, each one either speeding up, slowing down, or even halting the charge rate of the ATB gauge altogether.
====Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-====
The same battle settings returns in the sequel of Final Fantasy IV. It function is no different from the original.
====Final Fantasy IV: The After Years====
Like the two previous titles, it functions the same way as it did previously.
===Final Fantasy V===
The battle speed can be adjusted between six different settings, three being the medium, one being the fastest and six the slowest.
The setting alters the amount of grace period time the ATB counter pauses for when a character's turn comes up, with 3 pausing the action for one second (or until a command is chosen), 1 not pausing the action at all and 6 pausing the action for six seconds. In this way it is similar to the Active/Wait setting, punishing the player for not quickly entering a command rather than altering the game speed. 
The spell Speed is a Level 1 Time Magic spell that sets the battle speed setting to 5 for that battle. If the battle speed is already set at 5, the spell does nothing, and if the battle speed is set at 6, it actually speeds the battle up a bit, by setting it to 5. The spell can be used by the Time Mage and costs 1 MP to cast.
===Final Fantasy VI===
The battle speed can be adjusted between six different settings, three being the medium, one being the fastest and six the slowest. The battle speed only affects the enemies' speed; the player characters' speed is only affected by their Speed stat and whether they have Haste or Slow. This means the battle speed is kind of like a game difficulty setting, although setting the battle speed to fast can, in a few isolated cases, be advantageous to the player, if they want the enemy to get through their battle script faster.
Normal speed:
:((96 \times (Speed + 20)) \times (255 - ((Battle~Speed - 1) \times 24))) / 16Final Fantasy VI Algorithms FAQ by Terii Senshi
If Hasted:
:((126 \times (Speed + 20)) \times (255 - ((Battle~Speed - 1) \times 24))) / 16
If Slowed:
:((48 \times (Speed + 20)) \times (255 - ((Battle~Speed - 1) \times 24))) / 16
===Final Fantasy VII===
The player can set the battle speed for regular battles, but also for the Condor War minigame at Fort Condor.
The battle speed option gives a value between 0 and 255, where 0 is the fastest and 255 is the slowest. The default battle speed is 128.
When a battle starts, the battle speed is converted into a Speed Value via the following equation:
:Speed Value = [32768 / (120 + [Battle~Speed \times 15 / 8])]Final Fantasy VII Battle Mechanics FAQ by TFergusson
On the fastest setting, the battles are 300% faster than on the default battle speed (100%). On the slowest setting, the battles are running at 59% speed.
The Speed Value, calculated from the battle speed set in the config, determines how fast the units' ATB bars fill (also depends if the character has Haste or Slow and their Dexterity stat) and how fast status effects wear out. However, the Battle Speed does not affect all status effects. For example, the negative statuses of Death-sentence and Slow-numb use a different timer, which means they are much more dangerous in slow battle speeds.
===Final Fantasy VIII===
Battle Speed can be set to one of five values: with 5 being the slowest, 3 the default speed, and 1 the fastest. The Battle Speed affects the size of the ATB bar, although this change is invisible to the player.
:BarSize = BattleSpeed \times 4000Final Fantasy VIII Battle Mechanics FAQ by ForteGSOmega
Every tick, the bar is increased by the BarIncrement:
:BarIncrement = (Spd + 30) \times SpeedMod / 2
The SpeedMod is whether a character has Slow or Haste or neither.
It thus takes:
:200 \times BattleSpeed / (3 \times (Spd + 30))
seconds to fill the ATB bar.
The battle speed also affects the duration of status effects and how long it takes to summon a Guardian Force (in conjunction with GF compatibility):
:Duration = Compatibility \times BattleSpeed \times 0.9143 / 32
===Final Fantasy IX===
The value of a full ATB bar is equal to:
:((60 - Speed) \times 160)
Which is filled in increments of:
*Max Battle Speed:
:+9 per 1/60th second in Slow status +14 per 1/60th second normally +21 per 1/60th second in Haste status
*Medium Battle Speed:
:+6 per 1/60th second in Slow status +10 per 1/60th second normally +15 per 1/60th second in Haste status
*Slow Battle Speed:
:+5 per 1/60th second in Slow status +8 per 1/60th second normally +12 per 1/60th second in Haste status
Battle Speed also affects how long status effects last, in conjunction with Spirit.
The one opponent, Ozma, has its own ATB mechanism that is not dependent on the battle speed setting. Setting the battle speed to maximum plays an important role if the player is attempting the Excalibur II challenge.
===Final Fantasy X-2===
There are three selectable battle speeds: Slow, Normal, and Fast.
===Final Fantasy XII===
There are six battle speed settings, 1 the slowest, 6 the fastest.
Battle Speed	B-MOD
1 (Slowest) 	1/1.0 (100%)
2 	1/1.2 (83%)
3 	1/1.4 (71%)
4 	1/1.6 (63%)
5 	1/1.8 (56%)
6 (Fastest) 	1/2.0 (50%)
Final Fantasy XII Game Mechanics FAQ by maltzsan
Final Fantasy XII introduces a new concept of Charge Time, where the player's actions have a charge period before being executed. The battle speed affects this time. On the fastest setting, the units' Charge Timers take half the time to fill up, compared to the slowest battle speed. The battle speed only affects how fast the characters' Charge Timer bars fill, not the rate the characters move about on the field in real time. This means that by setting the battle speed fast, one can reduce the relative disadvantage of actions with long charge times (such as guns), as the action length stays the same.
Other factors, besides the battle speed setting, also affect the Charge Time, such as what weapon/attack the character is performing, their Speed stat, the number of "Swiftness" augments purchased on the License Board and what status effects the character is afflicted with.
Unlike other games, battle speed doesn't affect the status effects' duration, which means the player is worse off if using the slow battle speed. The game's toughest enemies, such as Yiazmat, also don't have any charge time for their attacks, meaning setting the battle speed to slow only hurts the player. The battle speed can be set to slow when escaping from enemies, however, as it will make the enemies get their turns slower, but the party will still keep running away at the same pace.
===Final Fantasy XIII===
Final Fantasy XIII has two settings: Slow and Normal battle speed. Battle speed only determines the rate the ATB bar fills (Slow being half the speed of Normal) and the duration of Doom (1800 ticks in Normal, 3214 in Slow). Most other time-related mechanics are unaffected, including (but not necessarily limited to) a battle's target time, the amount of time any ability adds to the Stagger timer, and the amount of time any status effect lasts (excluding Doom). In most regards, this means the Slow setting increases the game's difficulty, as it will be harder to substantially beat target times and stagger enemies.
===Final Fantasy Record Keeper===
There are five Battle Speed settings, with 1 being the slowest and 5 being the fastest. The duration of status effects will scale to the Battle Speed.
The Battle Speed can be manipulated to the player's advantage in some situations. One usage of this is to set the Battle Speed to maximum while heroes are charging abilities, due to the player's actions being given priority over enemy actions if they finish charging in the same clock tick.
Battle Speed	ATB per tick
1 (Slowest) 	0.35x
2 	0.5x
3 (Normal) 	1.0x
4 	1.5x
5 (Fastest) 	2.0x
==Citations==
Category:Battle elements