Rapid Fire (Final Fantasy V)

Rapid Fire is a Ranger command ability in Final Fantasy V. It performs four attacks randomly among all enemies, usually at halved damage, ignoring Defense and Evasion. The ability effectively doubles a physical attackers' damage output, while spreading it among the enemy party, making it extremely potent. In combination with abilities from other jobs, Rapid Fire can be devastating late in the game.
Rapid Fire is also the added ability of the Hayate Bow.
==Obtained==
Rapid Fire is not innate to Rangers, and cannot be used until mastering the job at level 4, for a total of 500 AP (405 AP from level 3). At this point, the ability can be equipped in the ability slot by any job.
==Mechanics==
Rapid Fire's third and fourth hit will not dispel confuse, sleep, or Control. It will not trigger counters, and any added abilities from weapons will not activate. Because the Twin Lance's extra hit does not trigger with Rapid Fire, it deals roughly the same overall damage via Rapid Fire as it would with an Attack, Mug, Aim, or Mineuchi command. Rapid Fire deals half damage to targets in the back row when used with close range weapons. 
In at least the Nintendo Switch Pixel Remaster, Rapid Fire does not halve the damage of attacks made with weapons that rely on the user's Magic stat, effectively quadrupling the damage made with magic weapons; this applies to the Blood Sword, Staff of Light, Sage Staff, Judgment Staff, Rod, Thunder Rod, Flame Rod, Frost Rod, Poison Rod, Magus Rod, Diamond Bell, and Tinklebell. Conversely, weapons that always replace their attack with a spell or spell-like effect (such as the Healing Staff, Apollo's Harp, or Lilith Rod) do not trigger their effects when used with Rapid Fire and thus do no damage. 
Also in the Switch Pixel Remaster, when using the Chicken Knife with Rapid Fire, it always deals 20x its Attack bonus in damage if both the target and the user are in the front row, 10x Attack bonus if one is in the front and the other in the back row, or 5x when both are in the back row. Rune weapons (Rune Blade, Rune Chime, and Rune Axe) consume 5 MP per individual hit (or 8 MP for Rune Blade), costing the user 20/32 MP per Rapid Fire (or 40/52/64 with two rune weapons equipped). 
A character with Rapid Fire and a dual-wielding Mime, or any dual-wielding character with Mimic, may trigger the reviving enemies glitch. If the Rapid Fire does not defeat the enemy, and the other character uses Mimic immediately after and kills the enemy in the middle of the barrage of attack, the enemy will vanish for a moment until the next strike of Rapid Fire, which will bring the vanished enemy back. The revived enemy counts as defeated, can never be targeted, and will never attack. The battle is won after killing all other enemies. The revived enemy remains onscreen even during the victory fanfare.
==Use==
Rapid Fire is an immensely powerful ability due to its damage output. It can double or quadruple damage when used against a single target, or spread damage effectively among enemies when used against a group of them. The ability to ignore Evasion also means all attacks will connect. Combining it with Barehanded or Dual-Wield allows it to hit enemies eight times, as each of the four hits will hit twice.
Rapid Fire can be combined with Spellblade, allowing Spellblade to imbue a weapon with an effect (especially an elemental weakness) to then Rapid Fire against enemies. Combining this further with Dual-Wield can perform eight attacks against a target's elemental weakness, which easily kills most enemies, including the superboss Omega.
==Gallery==
FFV iOS Rapid Fire.png|2013.
==Notes==
Category:Command abilities in Final Fantasy V