Monk (Final Fantasy)

The Monk, is a job available to the Warriors of Light in the original Final Fantasy. It was called Black Belt in the original NA and EU NES releases. Its upgrade is the Master .
The Monk excels in unarmed combat and is the only job in Final Fantasy to never learn any sort of magic. It is focused on being a pure powerhouse, and with investment to level it up, can be the most physically powerful job in the game, surpassing the Warrior and its upgrade, the Knight.
==Characteristics==
===Appearance===
In the original NES version of Final Fantasy and the Pixel Remaster version, the Monk wears blue robes with a black belt, brown bracers and a blue headband, and has brown hair. The Master looks identical to the Monk but with a more muscular figure and a taller-looking sprite. The MSX2 port gives the two dark blue robes, purple bracers, and green hair. 
The Playstation Origins port updates the designs for the Monk and the Master, and these sprites are also used for the Game Boy Advance Dawn of Souls port. The Monk wears dark purple robes with a belt, headband, and bracers, which are colored red, and they have brown or dark blond hair. The Master wears a sleeveless blue coat with gold trim, a red belt and bracers, and its hair is tied in a ponytail. In the Playstation Portable 20th Anniversary port, the Monk wears lightweight pale purple and blue armor with a blue-grey headband, and the Master wears similar armor with a more grey tint, a grey cape with gold trim, and no headband.
===Names===
The Dawn of Souls and subsequent versions have ten optional auto-names for the each character class. Each name refers to another character or location's name in the Final Fantasy series.
The ten names for the Monk class are:
*Arvis - Character in Final Fantasy VI.
*Cinna - Character in Final Fantasy IX.
*Drogan - Character in Final Fantasy V.
*Duncan - Character in Final Fantasy VI.
*Gorn - Character in Final Fantasy III.
*Maduin - Character in Final Fantasy VI.
*Marcus - Character in Final Fantasy IX.
*Owain - Character in Final Fantasy VI.
*Owzer - Character in Final Fantasy VI.
*Walz - Character in Final Fantasy V.
In addition, the name Sabin from Final Fantasy VI was used in screenshots for the Final Fantasy Origins manual.
In the Final Fantasy manga, one of the Warriors of Light is a former Monk named Fritz who was ousted from his monastery because of his penchant for drinking and womanizing. His character stands as a major departure from the job class as he uses exclusively swords after his introduction in the first chapter wherein he only engages in hand-to-hand combat for one instance in an altercation with Puffy Tolte, the protagonist of the manga and representation of the Warrior job class.
===Abilities===
The Monk is a cheap class to maintain and upgrade; it is only able to use a limited number of weapons and armor, and cannot equip any sort of shield. To make up for this, the Monk gains a damage bonus when attacking without a weapon, and also gains a bonus to its defense based on its Stamina. Its Stamina is the highest of any job, meaning a Monk will have noticeably higher HP than other jobs. These benefits do not entirely compensate for the Monk's lack of equipment options, and its defenses are lower than other physically-inclined classes, but it is still more hardy than would be expected fighting without equipment.
After completing the Citadel of Trials, Bahamut grants the party their class change and any Monks in the player's party become Masters. Due to a bug in the original NES version, the Master's Magic Defense gain is much lower than the Monk's. The Dawn of Souls port tweaked the stat growth for various jobs and the Master gains more Magic Defense than the Monk on level up, but the Monk's Magic Defense growth is lower than in the NES version and both jobs still have low Magic Defense on the whole.
==== Formulas ====
Monk and Master follow different sets of formulas to determine their battle attributes. These also differ between versions.
===== NES, PS =====
If the Monk/Master has a weapon equipped:
:Attack = Weapon Attack + STR ÷ 2 + 1
If the Monk/Master has no weapon equipped:
:Attack = Level × 2
:Critical Rate = Level × 2
Unarmed Monk/Master will also hit twice as many times per attack.
If the Monk/Master has no body armor, gloves or helmet equipped:
:defense = Level
If any armor is equipped, even just on one slot, their defense is the sum of the armors' defense values, as it is with other classes.
There exists a bug in the NES version, where upon level up, the game checks if the Monk/Master has a weapon equipped instead of their armor to determine what formula to use. If they have no weapon equipped, but do have armor on, the game will mistakenly set their defense to their level, as if they were not equipping any armor. This error can be fixed by viewing the armor screen from the pause menu. This bug can also be exploited by granting the Monk/Master special armor properties but using the naturally higher defense of the unarmored Monk (e.g., leveling up with a Ribbon equipped and no weapon, to give the Monk the Ribbon's elemental and status protection but use the Monk's higher natural defense).
===== GBA, PSP, Steam, Mobile, Pixel Remaster =====
If the Monk/Master has no weapon equipped:
:Monk Attack = (Stamina + 1) × 3 ÷ 4
:Master Attack = Stamina
As with the original, Monk/Master deals twice as many hits when unarmed.
Unlike the older versions, each armor slot has its defense calculated independently. For example, a Monk can have a ring equipped on their gloves slot and use the defense value of that equipment, but still use their unequipped defense for their body armor and helmet slots.
For each different armor slot being unequipped, the formulas are:
:No helmet defense = Stamina ÷ 8
:No gloves defense = Stamina ÷ 8
:Monk no body armor defense = Stamina ÷ 4 × 3 ÷ 2
:Master no body armor defense = Stamina ÷ 2
All remainders are truncated (rounded down) for every instance of division.
====Equipment====
=====Weapons=====
Nunchaku	Katanas	Swords	Staves
*Nunchaku
*Iron Nunchaku	
*Masamune	
*Ultima Weapon (Master only)	
*Staff
*Power Staff
=====Armor=====
Helmets	Body armor	Gloves
*Leather Cap
*Ribbon
*Twist Headband
*Tiger Mask	
*Bard's Tunic
*Clothes
*Kenpogi
*Leather Armor
*Power Vest
*Copper Armlet
*Diamond Armlet
*Ruby Armlet
*Silver Armlet	
*Leather Gloves
*Protect Ring
==Other appearances==
===Final Fantasy Record Keeper===
Master is a playable character who could be initially recruited during the Challenge Event Dawn of a Legend as a First Time Reward for completing the Flying Fortress on the Classic difficulty.
===Final Fantasy Portal App===
Monk appears as a Triple Triad card.
==Gallery==
FF1 Monk V-Jump.png|Artwork of the Monk job from the V-Jump strategy guide for the WonderSwan Color version.
FF1NES BlackBelt CriticalHP.gif|Black Belt in Critical HP (NES).
FF1NES Master CriticalHP.gif|Master in Critical HP (NES).
Monk-ff1-msx.png|Monk battle sprite (MSX).
Monk-ff1-wsc.png|Monk battle sprite (WSC).
Monk-ff1-psx.png|Monk battle sprite (PS).
FFI MSX Black Belt Map.png|Monk map sprite (MSX).
FFI PS Monk Map.png|Monk map sprite (PS).
FF1-Master-MSXSprite.PNG|Master battle sprite (MSX). 
FF1-Master-PSSprite.PNG|Master battle sprite (PS). 
FFI PS Master Map.png|Master map sprite (PS).
==Etymology==
==Citations==
de:Novize
es:Monje (Final Fantasy)
pt-br:Monk (Final Fantasy)
ru:Монах (Final Fantasy)
Category:Jobs in Final Fantasy
Category:Monks