Dark Gear (Final Fantasy IX)

The Dark Gear is an endgame light armor piece in Final Fantasy IX that everyone but Steiner and Freya can wear. It is the strongest "universal" light body armor, as the Rubber Suit is female-exclusive, and the Brave Suit is only for Zidane and Amarant. The Dark Gear is thus the best light body armor for Vivi and Quina, though they may prefer high level robes for the endgame instead.
The Dark Gear teaches Clear Headed and Jelly, which immunize against Confuse and Petrify, respectively. The garment gives a large bonus to the wearer's Spirit when they level up with it equipped, making it a good level grinding equipment piece.
==Obtain==
The Dark Gear is stolen from Garland, and afterward, is bought fort 16,300 gil from Black Mage Village.
==Mechanics==
The Dark Gear provides 37 Defense, mitigating damage from physical attacks. The vest gives a +3 bonus to the wearer's Spirit when they level up with it equipped. When enough "bonuses" upon level up from gear have been accrued, the character gains a permanent stat increase. Spirit is a generally useful stat to raise for everyone, governing aspects such as HP the character is revived on, the duration of expirable status effects, the frequency Regen and Poison tick, how often the character enters Trance and how many turns they will get while in Trance, among other things.
==Use==
The Dark Gear is a good light body armor for level grinding, as it is obtained late into the game, about the time it becomes worthwhile to start grinding and min-maxing if the player wants to raise their stats, though doing these is unnecessary in a normal playthrough even when preparing for superbosses. For level grinding, Zidane and Amarant could instead wear Power Vest (Strength +2) and the females could wear the Minerva's Plate (Strength +1 & Magic +2).
The immunity abilities from the Dark Gear are useful to have mastered for the final boss and for the superbosses, but the party likely has already done so from previous equipment.
The guests from Tantalus can also wear the Dark Gear though the player cannot equip them with it in a normal playthrough.
Category:Armor in Final Fantasy IX