Ark (summon)

Ark , sometimes known as Cruise Chaser , is a recurring airship-like summon in the Final Fantasy series that first appeared in Final Fantasy IX. Although initially appearing as an airship with a dragon's head at the helm and a long blade out front, Ark can transform into a mecha; in this state, it can attack with an arsenal of explosive laser weaponry. Its signature attack is called Eternal Darkness.
==Appearances==
===Final Fantasy IX===
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Ark is Dagger's ultimate eidolon, learned from equipping a Pumice for 100 AP. It costs 80 MP to summon. The party can locate two Pumice Pieces, which can be forged into Pumice by Hades at his Synthesis Shop in Memoria. Pumice can also be received by beating Ozma, the most powerful enemy.
Ark is first met when fought as a boss in Oeilvert.
When summoned, Ark departs from the red moon of Terra, and transforms into a mecha as it reaches terminal velocity within Gaia's orbit. A hovering Ark targets the enemy with a laser glyph before firing a salvo of explosive lasers from its wings to scorch the battlefield, and finishes by readying a larger laser whose impact can be seen from space. Its attack is called Eternal Darkness, which deals Shadow-elemental damage to all enemies.
Ark's spell power is equal to 106 plus the total number of Lapis Lazulis in the party's inventory. (See here for damage formulae.) It also has an eidolon-type Tetra Master card.
===Final Fantasy XIV===
Cruise Chaser is a boss in , and . Cruise Chaser is a machina designed by the Illuminati and has its two distinct forms, mecha and airship, which it switches to during the fights' phase transitions.
Before casting Eternal Darkness, Cruise Chaser will summon Lapis Lazuli orbs to empower the attack, alluding to the jewel mechanics in Final Fantasy IX, in which the more Lapis Lazulis were in the player's inventory, the more damage Ark's Eternal Darkness would inflict.
Cruise Chaser also functions as a deployable machina during the PvP mode, with abilities oriented toward defeating other players and machina, dealing little damage to enemy structures.
Both Cruise Chaser and Ark also appear as mounts. Cruise Chaser is a mount obtainable via purchase on the Final Fantasy XIV Online Store, while Ark is a mount included in the Digital Collector's Edition of the Dawntrail expansion.
===Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia===
Ark and its ability, Eternal Darkness, are Garnet's LD Ability. Mastering its passive grants Garnet up to 3 uses of an HP+BRV battery attack that strikes all foes and grants up to 12 turns of an overhead buff that allows Ark to recast every 4 party member turns, with moderate HP recovery after each casting. It deals extra damage to foes afflicted with Thunder Resist Down and Water Resist Down.
===Final Fantasy Dimensions II===
Ark is a light-elemental Eidolon for Jornee and Aemo. Jornee's version of the signet teaches her Aura abilities, while Aemo's version teaches her Blasty abilities. Both artworks of the summon take inspiration from the summon's multiple appearances in the series.
===Pictlogica Final Fantasy===
===Final Fantasy Record Keeper===
Ark appears as the main boss of the Oeilvert Final Fantasy IX realm dungeon. Ark has access to Propeller Wind, Photon, Boomerang, Whirlwind, and the default Attack ability. 
Ark also appears in various Final Fantasy IX event dungeons. The versions of Ark encountered in the non-ultimate difficulty dungeons of events use the same attacks as the realm dungeon versions. The "ultimate" versions of Ark often use stronger variants of its normal attacks and occasionally have access to the Eternal Darkness attack.
====Magicite====
A stronger version of Ark also appears as a boss and an Esper as part of the magicite system. The summon is a rank 5 dark-elemental magicite and players must first defeat Ark (Savage) in the third dark magicite dungeon in order to obtain it. This version of Ark uses a different set of attacks to match its dark-elemental nature, such as Endark, Eternal Darkness, and Doomsday.
When Ark is summoned into battle it will cast Ultra Eternal Darkness, which deals ranged physical dark-elemental to one enemy and grant all allies a barrier to avoid a single holy-elemental attack. Ultra Eternal Darkness can break the damage cap.
;Magicite effects
Ark’s magicite provides the following effects in battle:
Name	Starting Value 	Max Value 	
 	Lv. 10 	Lv. 20 	
 	Increases the Mind of all allies, proportional to combined magicite stats.	Increases the Mind of all allies, proportional to combined magicite stats.	Increases the Mind of all allies, proportional to combined magicite stats.
 	Lv. 5 	Lv. 15 	
 	Increases the dark damage of all allies and their espers. 	Increases the dark damage of all allies and their espers. 	Increases the dark damage of all allies and their espers.
;Abilities
Ark also has a chance of using the following abilities after being summoned into battle:
Name	Trigger Rate (Start) 	Trigger Rate (Max) 	
 	10% 	100% 	
 	Deal ranged physical dark damage to one enemy. Can break the damage cap.	Deal ranged physical dark damage to one enemy. Can break the damage cap.	Deal ranged physical dark damage to one enemy. Can break the damage cap.
 	70% 	0% 	
 	Deal ranged physical damage to two enemies. 	Deal ranged physical damage to two enemies. 	Deal ranged physical damage to two enemies.
 	20% 	0% 	
 	Deal three ranged physical dark attacks to one enemy. 	Deal three ranged physical dark attacks to one enemy. 	Deal three ranged physical dark attacks to one enemy.
===Final Fantasy Brave Exvius===
===Mobius Final Fantasy===
Ark is an earth-elemental magic card, allowing the player to use the Stonera earth magic ability. 
The card was originally added into the game's draw shop in late 2016, however it has since been removed as a obtainable card through this method. The only method of aquiring this card is now through the game's ability shop. 
===Final Fantasy Trading Card Game===
Ark appears in Final Fantasy Trading Card Game with a dark-elemental card depicting an artwork of it.
===Final Fantasy Portal App===
Ark appears as a Triple Triad card.
==Gallery==
Ark FFIX Art 1.jpg|Concept artwork of Ark's mecha form.
Ark FFIX Art 2.jpg|Concept artwork of Ark's airship form.
Ark FFIX Art 3.jpg|Concept artwork of Ark's transformation.
Ark FFIX Art 4.jpg|Concept artwork of Ark's transformation.
Ark Storyboard FFIX Art.jpg|Storyboard of Ark's summoning sequence.
==Behind the scenes==
Ark's design is based on the eponymous robot from Cruise Chaser Blassty , a 1986 RPG designed by Hironobu Sakaguchi and Kazuhiko Aoki, developed by Square with anime studio Sunrise. The original Cruise Chaser Blassty was designed by Mika Akitaka.
The Pumice item used to summon Ark in Final Fantasy IX has the same Japanese name as Final Fantasy's Levistone , which is used to raise the ancient airship from the Ryukahn Desert.
==Etymology==
==Citations==
de:Arche
Category:Recurring summons