Grand Armor (Final Fantasy IX)

The Grand Armor is an endgame heavy body armor in Final Fantasy IX for Steiner and Freya. It is Freya's best body armor and Steiner's second best body armor. It teaches Chemist, which doubles the potency of healing potions the character uses mid battle, and Restore HP, which restores health to the character when they survive an enemy's attack at Near Death. It gives a bonus to the wearer's Strength when they level up with the body armor equipped, making it good to wear for level grinding. It halves Shadow damage to the wearer. It is missable.
==Obtain==
The Grand Armor is synthesized in Black Mage Village after the events in Pandemonium for 45,000 gil, a Mythril Sword, and a Mythril Armor. The Mythril Sword is no longer available to obtain at the end of the game so the player must have brought it along from before the point of no return, but the Mythril Armor can be bought from the shops in the Mist Continent towns.
It can also be stolen from Nova Dragon.
==Mechanics==
The Grand Armor provides 59 Defense, mitigating damage from physical attacks. The body armor gives a +1 bonus to the wearer's Strength 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. Strength is a useful stat to raise for both Steiner and Freya, factoring in their damage calculations and HP growths.
The Grand Armor halves Shadow damage to the wearer. If Freya also equips a Maiden Prayer, which weakens her to Shadow, she will take +75% damage from Shadow. If the wearer also equips a Pumice Piece, they will absorb half damage from Shadow attacks.
==Use==
The Grand Armor is an endgame heavy armor piece, however, other endgame armor pieces are also available.: Dragon Mail for Freya, and Maximillian for Steiner. Steiner's ultimate armor piece is the Tin Armor, but the player needs to forgo an extra scene in the ending to get it.
Chemist is a good support ability that can make Steiner more self sufficient, but he is usually better of using his turn for dealing damage while another character heals him. Restore HP pales in comparison to Auto-Regen and is usually not worth equipping.
The Grand Armor halves Shadow damage, but only Ozma and Hades and Vivi's Doomsday deal Shadow damage, and in these cases Shadow-absorption would be preferable to Shadow-halving.
The Grand Armor's level up bonus to Strength is good for endgame level grinding, though grinding and min-maxing are unnecessary in a normal playthrough even for superboss encounters. The Grand Armor becomes available when level-grinding becomes worthwhile as the best stat boost equipment pieces will be available. Freya can do 9999 damage regardless of her Strength stat with Dragon's Crest, however.
Beatrix can also wear the Grand Armor, but the player cannot see this in a normal playthrough.
Category:Armor in Final Fantasy IX