Normal Shot (Final Fantasy VIII)

Normal Shot is a Limit Break for Irvine in Final Fantasy VIII that deals physical damage to an enemy depending on his Strength stat. It is his basic Limit Break, used with the easily available Normal Ammo. When Shot initiates, the player has a variable amount of time to fire at their chosen target (the player can re-targeting during) with and cancel with . Ammo cannot be swapped amid a Shot action. Normal Shot has fairly fast firing speed. The time allotted for shooting depends on Irvine's Crisis Level, a hidden calculation in the game. Limit Breaks are randomly available when Irvine is on low health or under Aura.
==Obtained==
Irvine can use Normal Shot when the player has Normal Ammo is the inventory. It costs 20 gil per ammo in shops and is made from Screws with Ifrit's Ammo-RF. Screws are plentiful drops from Geezards, fought on the plains near Dollet on the world map. One Screw turns into 8 Normal Ammo. It is a good idea to keep Normal Ammo stocked and replenish the inventory when passing by a shop. After the player gets Call Shop, it will be even easier to keep stocked up.
==Mechanics==
Normal Shot deals non-elemental physical damage to an opponent, each hit's damage calculated as per the following formula:
:Critical Determination
:Critical\% = (Luck + 1) / 256 \times 100
Where "Luck" is Irvine's Luck stat. If the hit criticals, it will deal double damage.
:Base Damage Calculation
:Damage = Strength^2 / 16 + Strength
:Damage = Damage \times (265 - Target's~Vitality) / 256
:Damage = Damage \times Power / 16
Where "Strength" is Irvine's Strength stat, "Vitality" is the target's Vitality stat, and "Power" is the power of the chosen Shot: 16 for Normal Ammo. For comparison, the Power value of a normal attack is 20, meaning one hit from Normal Shot is 20% weaker than using his Attack command; the damage potential comes from being able to fire consecutively and the guarantee that the shot will not miss.
All damage is randomized slightly:
:Damage = Damage \times ([0..32] + 240) / 256
The time Irvine has for Shot depends on his Crisis Level in the following manner:
:Crisis Level 1: 8 s
:Crisis Level 2: 12 s
:Crisis Level 3: 20 s
:Crisis Level 4: 26.6 s
Crisis Level is a hidden stat calculated based on how low Irvine's current HP is compared to his maximum, the number of dead allies, and the number of ailments he is afflicted with. The worse off he is, the longer Shot times the player can expect. Crisis Level is also raised with the Aura status.
One round of Normal Shot takes 0.7 seconds from the timer. This makes it equal with Scatter Shot and Dark Shot, but slower than Quick Shot (0.2s).
If the target has Protect, damage is halved. Shot will not awaken sleeping enemies.
Limit Breaks never miss and are unaffected by Elem-Atk junctions.
==Use==
Normal Shot can be considered Irvine's default Limit Break, being the most readily available. Despite being the "basic" Shot, it remains useful until the endgame for its simplicity and fast firing speed, which stacks up the longer the Shot time is. It is best used when there is only one enemy, being a single-targeting Shot, or when the player specifically wants to destroy a certain enemy.
Irvine should be junctioned toward high Strength to make the most of his Limit Breaks. The Guardian Forces that have Str-J natively are Shiva, Ifrit, Brothers, Pandemona, and Cerberus. It is also worthwhile to give Irvine any Str+% abilities. Because each hit has a chance of being a critical hit, Irvine is also an excellent choice for Luck-J and Luck+50%; the only GF that has Luck-J natively is Cactuar, but Luck-J Scroll is available from some sidequests to give to the GFs Irvine is junctioning.
Normal Shot can be the desirable Shot to use even in the endgame when the player has stronger ammo, because the other ammo may be rare, and because the damage of each hit caps at 9999; if the player can reach close to that (especially with critical hits from having high Luck), then Normal Shot's faster firing speed offsets its lower attack power. If the player additionally inflicts Vit 0 onto the enemy, Normal Shot can be even more powerful. Normal Shot is not as fast as Quick Shot, but is more powerful per hit. For the best chance of getting the maximum timer, the player can have Irvine in critical HP and have him under Aura status. However, Aura spells and stones are rare.
Normal Shot would be especially good in the boss battle against Adel where the player must not use group-hitting attacks; the boss previous to Adel also had Aura for drawing, and so the player may have gotten a good stock to last until the end of the game. Irvine's shots are good against any sleeping enemies for not awaking them; one strategy against Ruby Dragons is to put them to sleep and then damaging them with abilities that will not awake them. Normal Shot can be more powerful than Squall's Renzokuken when he does not finish with Lion Heart. Irvine's limitation is that he may run out of certain types of ammo, especially during long battles where he uses his Shot extensively.
==Citations==
Category:Shots in Final Fantasy VIII