Darkside (Final Fantasy VIII)

Darkside is a command ability in Final Fantasy VIII used to deal triple damage with the character's normal attack while sacrificing 10% of their maximum health. It can be a good command to use instead of the player's normal attack command as long as the player keeps an eye on their health.
Darkside is Final Fantasy VIII's version of the series's recurring Dark Knight ability, first seen as Cecil Harvey's ability in Final Fantasy IV. If reference to the "darkness" aspect, the screen briefly darkens when using it.
==Obtained==
Darkside is learned by the GFs Diablos, Doomtrain, and Eden for 100 AP. Diablos is earned by getting the Magical Lamp from Headmaster Cid in the Timber mission briefing and then unleashing the boss within it by using the item in the menu. Doomtrain is obtained by using the Solomon Ring found at Tears' Point with the collection of correct items in the player's inventory (six each of Remedy+, Malboro Tentacle, and Steel Pipe). Eden is drawn from the superboss at the bottom of the hidden island on the corner of the world map or from Tiamat in final dungeon.
If the player removes Darkside with Amnesia Greens, there is no way to get it back.
==Mechanics==
The character using Darkside deals triple their normal damage up to the damage cap of 9999 but loses HP equivalent to 10% of their maximum HP; if they have less than 10% of their health remaining, using Darkside will KO them. The HP loss cannot be prevented, as the user's HP is cut even if they have Invincible. However, as all normal attributes attached to physical attacks via the junction system are still in effect when using Darkside, the player can recoup the lost health by junctioning Drains to the user's ST-Atk-J. Critical hits can also trigger as normal and Squall's manual trigger works with Darkside. 
If the character who has Darkside equipped becomes confused, they will never use Darkside while in this state.
==Use==
Darkside is best used with a high Strength party member to help reach the damage cap earlier in the game, or for a weak character to still do good damage without robust Strength junctions.
The HP loss can be a boon to safely and predictably bring characters to the health range for activating Limit Breaks.
100 Drains in ST-Atk-J would recoup the HP loss every time as long as the enemy is not undead, reversing the effect, effectively allowing the player to make Darkside their new Attack command, only three times more powerful than normal.
Even without Drains, the HP loss from Darkside is not a massive downside for random encounters that are expected to be over in few turns, faster still when doing triple damage with Darkside. The player can then easily replenish their health outside of battle. Regen and Auto-Potion can be used for passive healing for battles that draw on for longer.
When the character can reach close to the damage cap with their normal attack without Darkside (easier when the player has access to Vit 0), Darkside becomes unnecessary.
Category:Command abilities in Final Fantasy VIII