(NNNNNN    (NNNNNN       NNNNNNN                N   0
()         ()               N     ___     __. ._N_. _    __.   __.
()         ()               N   (N""4N  (N""NL`"N"` N  (N""NL NF"N)
(NNNNN     (NNNNN           N     ___N  N`   "  N   N  N`   " NL_
()         ()               N   .NF""N  N       N   N  N       ""NL
()         ()               N   (L  JN  4L  JN  N.  N  4L  JN(N. .N
()      0  ()      0        N    4NN`N   "NNF   `NN N   "NNF  `NNF`


                 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
                 %Learning Zodiac & The Charm Method%
                 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Version 1
April 2002
Written by: Master Daravon
E-mail: [email protected]
AIM: Beefstew99

+++++++++
|Credits|
+++++++++

Though I am the author of this FAQ, I can't claim that I did this FAQ
all by myself.  So before I begin, I'd like to give credit where it is
due as accurately as I can.  Having said that, I would like to thank:

-Jesus Christ in whom I can do all things (Philippians 4:13)
-The developers of the greatest Final Fantasy to date.  Final Fantasy
Tactics is important enough to me to dedicate the time and energy to do
this FAQ
-CJayC and Gamefaqs for allowing me to contribute this work for the
benefit of others
-The Final Fantasy Tactics message board, which is without question the
best of all the Final Fantasy boards (you want some of this, FF7
board?!).  Without this board, I wouldn't have had the inspiration to
make this FAQ.  This FAQ is attributed to the posters of the FFT board
-TiamatDemonofChaos, the poster who I wanted to give this method to
originally as a simple e-mail
-Goryus for indiscriminate, but yet important input
-Aerostar for helping me get ASCII Art Software
-The posters of the FFT message board who tested out the details of
this method, and have gotten back to me.  I unfortunately can't
remember the names of you all, so I don't want to list names and leave
anyone out.  You know who you are (a terrible cliche, I know) and
thanks again
-My computer, though a stubborn whore sometimes

I'd also like to credit Aerostar's Battle Mechanics Guide (BMG), the
guide that brought FFT knowledge to a level unmatched in any Final
Fantasy game on gamefaqs.  Any formula, tidbit, or whatever you wanted
to know (I needed to refer to the BMG to help me write this FAQ), you
can find it there.

I'd also like to acknowledge Notti's Deep Dungeon's guide and Erg
Gibbon's FAQ.  These FAQs were especially helpful to me in various
ways, so this acknowledgement is a way of me saying thanks

Finally, I'd like to thank Halbarad for his great help with this lovely
Disclaimer, which states:

The contents of this FAQ are (c)Stewart Bertram (a branch of "Beefstew
Enterprises"). All rights reserved.  All characters are (c)Squaresoft,
Inc.  This FAQ may not be reproduced in any form without the express
written consent of the author. The following sites have permission to
display this FAQ:

GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com)


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NNNNNL                  N.        .NN
N)  `N)                 N)        N4N
N)  .N) .NNNNL (N_NNN(NNNNNN       (N
NNNNNF .NF` N) (NF`(N   N)         (N
NF""   (N   N) (N       N)         (N
N)     (N. .NL (N       N)         (N
N)      4NNNNN)(N       N)        NNNN)

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This FAQ is long overdue.  Though I probably am not the first to come
up with this method, I did however find a map and developed the
strategy found in this FAQ 2 years ago.  Considering the superiority of
this method, compared to the tedious/erratic "Crystal Method" I
apologize that this wasn't created earlier.

Anyhow, the main purpose of this guide is to provide a facilitated
means of teaching Zodiac from one human unit to another.  This would of
course happen after the Elidibs battle.  The only method discussed here
is learning Zodiac through a charmed Summoner ally.  Though there are
other means of learning Zodiac, this is by far the fastest way and
invaluable if you have many human units to teach (which is oft the
case).  This guide exists not only to say that Zodiac can be learnt
through a charmed ally (who of course knows Zodiac), it also gives step
by step instructions on how to accomplish this feat.  This also
includes which map to go to and the preferred character set-ups.  I
tried to make this guide rather practical; avoiding anything that could
be characterized as "excessive".  All of my characters are of high
faith (which are at least 70 faith), and those of you who also have
high faith units, you need not worry that you'll be told to vastly
decrease your faith.  It's a pain raising faith so I avoided manually
decreasing the faith value when possible (I personally didn't have to
decrease my faith, despite it being high).  If any relevant question
arises which this FAQ does not fully explain, feel free to e-mail me.


+++++++++++++++++++
|The Elidibs Fight|
+++++++++++++++++++

If you already have learned Zodiac from Elidibs, move on to the next
section, which actually talks about teaching Zodiac through the Charm
Method.  This section covers learning Zodiac from Elidibs only.

I have read many ways on how to learn Zodiac from Elidibs, some of
which are quite excessive.  There's no reason why learning Zodiac from
Elidibs needs to be difficult, tedious, or time-consuming.  As you know
if you want to learn Zodiac from Elidibs, your unit(s) have to be a
Summoner.  I recommend that you let all your units be summoners, so you
will have less to teach Zodiac via Charm Method later.  I also
recommend that your units be at a high level, such that your units will
have at least 350 HP when equipping standard summoner equipment (you
will see why).  Here is a checklist of what you will need for the
Elidibs fight:

1. All units having their jobs as Summoners and equipping Wizard Rods
and "108 Gems"
2. All units equipping the Support Ability "Magic Defend Up" (this
umbrellas those with high faith)
3. At least one unit with Math Skill as a secondary command (ideally
for the mage of your party)
4. At least one unit that's a mastered Samurai, or one that knows
Kiyomouri, Murasame, and Masamune (if you stole it from Elmdor)
5. A unit with Talk Skill (optional)
6. Units equipping the HP Restore Reaction ability (preferred, but not
necessary)
7. Just in case you didn't know, BEING "INNOCNET" WILL NOT TEACH YOU
ZODIAC

Here's an explanation for the above: Elidibs has the ability "Poison
Frog", and I would wager that you know what status ailments that
ability inflicts.  The 108 Gems accessory protects against the status
ailments "Poison" and "Frog".  The Apandas are weak against fire, so
just in case the Math Skill mage needs assistance, you can provide that
with powerful Ifrit attacks (though the Math Skiller can cast Holy,
since it still would slightly edge out Fire 3 in damage).  Wizard Rods
are recommended since the game doesn't allow multiple "strengthens."
This means that equipping a Fire Rod will not boost Ifrit's damage
further since 108 Gems strengthens Fire Elemental magic already (as
well as all other elements of course).  The Math Skill mage should cast
Holy on the Apandas (try not to target Elidibs).  Do not equip a Faith
Rod since Elidibs' casting of Zodiac will do too much damage.  If you
intend to keep Byblos as a party member, petrify him.  Byblos is a
unique guest in that if he loses his entire HP, he still has a counter
despite being a guest.  By Petrifying Byblos, it won't interfere with
the Elidibs fight (usually by casting "Difference"), but you can still
acquire it by the end of the battle.

Zodiac is the strongest spell in the game, and to learn it you'll need
adequate protection.  Equipping Magic Defend Up is not only a good
idea, it's necessary for high faith units.  It's an inexpensive Priest
support ability and it's more efficient than decreasing your faith only
to increase it again (if you prefer the previous faith value).  A
question that would probably come up is: "What about MP-Switch and Move
MP Up?"  Well, Magic Defend Up with Shell is safer since the damage
dealt by Elidibs is actually accounted for.  More importantly, with MP-
Switch, you'll lose the necessary MP to cast Zodiac back on Elidibs, a
quick way to dispose of him.  I wouldn't complain if you haven't
learned Magic Defend Up and/or Kiyomouri.  The Job Points required to
learn these inexpensive abilities should take but one quick random
battle.  I know MP-Switch/Move MP Up is popular on the message board,
but Magic Defend Up and Shell is superior (and often times only one of
the two is necessary).  "But what about Mind Breaking?"  As said
before, this FAQ is not trying to be excessive, tedious, or time-
consuming.  A summoner doing Mind Break is all three.  Moreover, I
wouldn't miss the opportunity to learn Zodiac for the sake of Mind
Breaking through a Knight or any non-summoner unit.

Casting Masamune at the start of the battle (if you have it in stock)
is a good idea so you can dispose of the Apandas quickly.  When the
Apandas are disposed, learning Zodiac from Elidibs should be quick and
simple.  When Masamune wears off, do not cast it again, especially if
you're at level 99.  Elidibs is slow enough as it is (in fact you might
want to cast Haste on him to speed things up).  While he charges to
cast Zodiac, it is during this time when you use the Samurai's
"Kiyomouri" so that your allied units have Shell.  Shell along with
Magic Defend Up will make all your characters survive Zodiac.  I had a
mage with 84 faith with Magic Defend Up and Shell.  Elidibs' Zodiac did
only around 338 damage.  Without the combination of the two, she would
have been killed.  Since it doesn't take a varied army to defeat
Elidibs, you can have a unit equip Talk Skill as a safeguard, in case
of a miscalculation regarding Faith (in other words you took a risk and
didn't listen =P).

If for some reason multiple units do not have Magic Defend Up but have
high faith, have a unit equip Talk Skill and the support ability
Monster Talk, so you can cast "Solution" on Elidibs himself.  Be
forewarned, only cast Solution as many times so that all units can
survive Zodiac (which is usually just once)!  If you cast it multiple
times, Elidibs will cast Midgar Swarm since it will then be more
powerful than Zodiac (Midgar Swarm isn't Faith dependant).  With
usually just a single casting of Solution, Shell by itself should be
adequate to survive and therefore learn Zodiac.  The reason why I
mention this here and not prior is because Shell and Magic Defend Up is
a safer bet.  Casting Solution only once still might trigger Elidibs to
cast Midgar Swarm, which is something you really don't want.  It's
usually better to keep an enemy the way he is if you want something
from him.  Tampering with Elidibs' faith might make him go psycho.

There were a couple of instances when Elidibs cast Zodiac twice, and
then cast Midgar Swarm for the rest of the battle, though I didn't
decrease Elidibs' faith and my characters' faith were rather high.  If
you have a scenario similar to this one, have a person that has "Item"
as a secondary command, and "Throw Item" (makes things more convenient)
as a support ability.  The unit with low faith (if you have one) should
be assigned this task since you won't have Magic Defend Up; but if you
don't have a unit with low faith, it is not necessary.  The purpose of
this unit is to throw Hi-Ethers at Elidibs, after he casts Zodiac.  I
can try to give a rationale why this worked, but this isn't a Theory
FAQ.  You can take my word for it since I had this situation a couple
of times (the first time I learned Zodiac, in fact), or you can simply
not believe me.  At least I'm providing a solution to a problem that
I've heard others have had.

Once you've learned Zodiac from Elidibs, you can teach him the old
saying "what goes around comes around."  Cast this dreadful summon back
on him to defeat him quickly.


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=======================================================================
____                             .__
NNNNN)                (N       .NNNNN)
N)  (N   __.  ._ __ ._JN__     (F   N)
NL_JNF JNNNNN (NN"N)`NNNNN        .NN
NNNN` (N)  N) (N  N)  (N        .NN`
N)    (N   N) (N      (N       .N)
N)    `NNNNNN (N      (N       (NNNNN.
"`      ""` " `"      `"       `"""""`

=======================================================================
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Learning Zodiac via Charm Method is more about planning, technical
skill, and increasing probability than anything else.  The better you
plan, the easier transferring Zodiac to the rest of your human units
will be.  Lucky for you the planning has been already done, all you
have to do is execute.  To facilitate things, the key thing is to have
a male unit to learn Zodiac through Elidibs with no other Summon
learnt.  If you don't have a male unit who hasn't learned a summon
besides Zodiac, still continue reading this method since it still
works.  At the end of this FAQ, I highlighted a section for your
convenience that addresses in detail how to teach Zodiac to your allied
students, despite the fact that you do have male units that has learned
summons (it's not a big deal).

It has been brought to my attention that the Bard's Fairy Harp adds
"Charm."  So instead of an enemy thief charming the Designated Teacher
(I'll explain shortly), you can use the Fairy Harp to induce the Charm
status.  A good idea, but unfortunately it doesn't work out as planned.
Let's take a look at Charm.  What does Charm do?  A quick answer could
be, "Charm makes you fight for the enemy."  That's actually not true.
Charm makes you fight on the side of the unit that inflicts it.  In
this case, an ally inflicts Charm, so therefore the charmed ally would
in turn fight for you.  You can say that the charmed ally is the
equivalent of a Guest, in that the AI is controlling the unit.  Though
this was promising, you're still stuck with this method...and me ;P.

So where can we find enemy units to inflict the Charm status?  The map
that this will be accomplished is BRIDGE in the Deep Dungeon.  The
person I designated to teach Zodiac to my ignorant allied human units
was Beowulf.  Of course, it isn't necessary that Beowulf becomes your
designated teacher, but you should have a male since the charming
Thieves are female.  I personally had eight people who had to learn
Zodiac.  Therefore, I had to do this battle twice in two groups of
four.  With the convenient topography of Bridge and the extensive
planning, both battles combined took a little over an hour (including
resetting the PSX to get that particular battle).  Part 3 may sound
complicated, but it's just an elaborate explanation of something simple
(and that's only because I can't show you the actual game).

+++++++++++
|Section 1|
+++++++++++

Below are the recommended set-ups for the five units in battle with a
brief explanation for each:

"Beowulf" a.k.a. Designated Teacher (DT)

Summoner
Nothing
Blade Grasp
Short Charge/Half MP
Teleport/Ignore Height/Fly

Nothing
Nothing
Best Hat Available/No Thief Hat
Best Robe available besides Robe of Lords
No Accessory that increase MA nor protects from "Don't Move"

As I said before, "Beowulf" is my Designated Teacher (DT), since Zodiac
was the only summon he had learned.  Since you can't control a charmed
unit, you should decrease the possible choices the AI will have
available when the Charm status takes effect.  This is why learning
only Zodiac is so crucial because the charmed unit has no other summon
to cast.  One may be cautious about Beowulf being a summoner because of
the high MA, but changing Beowulf to a low-MA job class may make him
inclined to physically attack having most likely a higher PA.  Besides,
a simple casting of Shell, let alone Magic Defend Up should make the
students survive.  It isn't necessary to lower Beowulf's faith to a
really low number.  "Don't Move" will be cast on him, so you need a
decent Faith for the casting to be successful anyway.  I didn't equip
anything in the hands for obvious reasons (having a weapon probably
would increase the chances for Beowulf to not cast Zodiac).  Do not
equip a Thief Hat so that Beowulf isn't guarded against "Don't Move".
Blade Grasp is the best reaction ability to use (pending the Brave is
97).  If you are impatient or you rather save some MP items, you can
equip Short Charge or Half MP, respectively.  Either Teleport/Ignore
Height/Fly will be fine, since for the majority of the battle there
will be little movement.  However, at least one unit should have
Teleport equipped so that you can see all the panels on the map.  Robe
of Lords does increase the MA value by one, but it also provides
Protect/Shell as well as boku MP.  The Light Robe is the next best
robe, so for the "MA conscious" that's an alternative (though I doubt
the +1 increase outweighs the Robe of Lords' benefits).


Student Unit 1

Summoner
Math Skill
HP Restore
Magic Defend Up/Magic Attack Up
Teleport/Ignore Height/Fly

This set-up is ideal for the mage of the group.  Of course, your mage
should be well-versed in calculable magic.  An important ability to
learn is the Time Mage's "Don't Move."  Depending on how much Faith
both your mage and your DT has, you may want to take the more cautious
approach and equip Magic Defend Up.  If not, then Magic Attack Up would
prove useful.  The purpose of this unit is to clear away the hordes of
enemies besides the enemy female thieves as well as general assistance
during the learning of Zodiac through the DT.  If this unit is a
female, equip a Chantage if you have one in stock for the Reraise
aspect.


Student Unit 2

Summoner
Item
HP Restore
Magic Defend Up
Teleport/Ignore Height/Fly

A critical auxiliary unit, since through this one the DT can cast
Zodiac as much as the stock of the appropriate items will yield.
Ideally, this set-up would be good for the unit that may have
relatively low faith.  This unit can be male or female despite being in
close proximity of the charming enemy thief (I'll explain later).  Of
course, make sure you have Hi-ethers in stock and give it liberally to
the DT (you should be rich in Gil at this point anyway).


Student Unit 3

Summoner
Draw Out
HP Restore
Magic Defend Up
Teleport/Ignore Height/Fly

This is a useful unit because it facilitates casting Shell on your
Zodiac Students through "Kiyomouri".  In addition, if you stole the
Masamune weapon from Elmdor and duplicated it, you can use "Masamamune"
(Haste and Regen) to give the speed advantage to your Math Skill
unit(s).  Finally, through "Murasame" you can restore HP.  Considering
the auxiliary support this unit can give, I doubt there is another unit
that will prove better.


Student Unit 4

Summoner
Math Skill/Draw Out/Talk Skill
HP Restore
Magic Defend Up
Teleport/Ignore Height/Fly

The preferred secondary command is Math Skill, since it provides
offensive support and general spell-casting help.  Talk Skill is
mentioned only if a student's or the DT's Faith value is very high such
that a casting of Solution would be necessary.  This would be the unit
to implement Talk Skill if such a miscalculation took place since all
the other units play a unique role.  If you feel there wouldn't be a
miscalculation, then I recommend Math Skill since the primary mage now
has help in killing the unneeded enemies.  Not only that, with a second
Math Skill you have another opportunity for status ailment spells
(remember to learn "Don't Move") and general healing.  If you do not
have another unit fluent in magic, then Draw Out (this unit should be
near mastered or close to it, learning Kikuichimoji especially) would
be helpful.

****
Since you'll most likely have more than four students to learn Zodiac,
it doesn't make sense to have all your mastered units in one group and
the next group is filled with scrubs.  So, please choose wisely.


+++++++++++
|Section 2|
+++++++++++

To recap: None of your units should be at a Faith above 77 (except your
primary Math Skill mage), and the DT's Faith shouldn't be unnaturally
low (not lower than 60).  If your mage has a very high faith (80s-90s),
Magic Defend Up is necessary along with Shell so your mage can survive
Zodiac.  Remember to have at least one person know Teleport so you can
view all the panels of the map when the unit has the opportunity to
Move (this will be necessary since I will describe certain parts of the
map).  For those who may not know, when you have the cursor on a unit
and press "X" (cancel button), you can see how many panels the
particular can move to potentially, which are highlight blue.  With
Teleport you can potentially move to all panels of the map
(essentially), so all the panels would therefore be highlighted blue,
which helps in making sense of where you are on the map.

BRIDGE has an interesting topography.  It has a big plateau and a small
plateau where both go straight down the middle of the map with a small
gap between the two plateaus.  You can say therefore, that the two
plateaus essentially cut the map in half.  Your units always start to
the "left" of the Big Plateau(1).  The Small Plateau(2) in respect to
your units is located on the opposite end of the map.  The battle that
you are looking for will have 1 or 2 enemy female thieves on the
"right" side of Plateau1, and it shouldn't take too many resets to
find.  The accompanying enemy units are usually high HP monsters
(Sacreds and Minotaurs) and a couple of human units.  In most cases,
there are two female thieves.  If only one female thief appears, rest
assured that she does know the Charm ability (I've checked it out).


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=======================================================================
____                             .__
NNNNN)                (N        NNNNN.
N)  (N   __.  ._ __ ._JN__      "   N)
NL_JNF JNNNNN (NN"N)`NNNNN       NNNN`
NNNN` (N)  N) (N  N)  (N          `4N.
N)    (N   N) (N      (N       (L   N)
N)    `NNNNNN (N      (N       `NNNNN`
"`      ""` " `"      `"         ""`

=======================================================================
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Once you have found the battle where the Thief or Thieves are, start
annihilating the enemy units through Math Skill except the 2 female
thieves of course.  The allied unit with draw out should cast Masamune
if you have the Katana in stock to get the speed advantage.  All your
units should stay put until most of the enemy units are killed.  Your
Math Skill unit(s) should have an easy time vanquishing the enemy
units.

When all the appropriate units are dead, move your units on top of
Plateau1.  Be forewarned: there are 3 nasty traps on Plateau1 (two
death-sentence traps and a sleeping gas trap).  Plateau1 is apart of
the edge of one side of the map (this would be a good time to play the
game and correspond what I'm saying to the actual game).  Trap 1 is a
death-sentence trap on the middle panel (of three panels), on the "back
end" of Plateau1.  Just in case you're confused, the height of the
panel is "10h."  Trap 2 is another Death Sentence trap two panels
isometrically ahead of Trap 1.  That panel is at a height of "12h."  To
the "right" of Trap 2, the height should show "9h."  Trap 3 is a Sleep
trap that's two panels ahead isometrically to Trap 2, (4 panels
isometrically ahead of Trap 1).  The height of that panel is "13h."  To
the "left" of Trap 3's panel is an unmountable panel at a height of
"12h" (unmountable such that the panel will appear red when the cursor
is placed on it).  "In front" of Trap 3's panel is a panel with a
height of "4h."  So essentially here's Plateau1 with the traps marked:

X = Free/Safe Panel of Plateau1
# = Unmountable Panel on Plateau1
1 = Refers to Trap 1
2 = Refers to Trap 2
3 = Refers to Trap 3
$ = Key panel (I'll explain later)


                                     $
                                 # 3 X #
                                 X X X X
                                 X 2 X X
                                 X X X
                                 X 1 X
                              [Edge of Map]

When the enemy female thieves are the only units left, move your 4
auxiliary units to the back end of Plateau1 (towards the edge of the
map) avoiding the traps.  If you'll take note, the panel on Plateau1
that is closest to Plateau2 is an angled panel at a height of "12h."
This is the key panel (symbol represented as "$").  What makes this the
key panel is that this panel is the access panel to Plateau1.  Without
Ignore Height/Teleport/Fly, that panel is the only way to access
Plateau 1.  This is where the DT will be placed.  He being there is a
great strategic advantage.  Until he's charmed, the female thieves have
no way to physically attack any of your allied units, since they have
no access to Plateau1.  When you move the DT to the key panel, cast
"Don't Move" on him (preferably before he's charmed).

In my experience, only 1 of the 2 female thieves knows Charm.  So, when
you've determined which thief has Charm, kill the other thief.  The
charmed thief might equip a Flash Hat instead of a Thief Hat.  If so,
you can cast Don't Move on the thief at the appropriate time.  The
female thief, having no way to access the plateau where your units are,
can only use charm as an offense.  The thieves should be on or near
Plateau2, hoping to access Plateau1.  Once she successfully charms the
DT, you can patiently wait for the DT's turn to come.  In the meantime,
place Student Unit 2 (the one with Item) directly "behind" the DT,
which is  also the panel to the "right" of Trap 3 so that you'll be
able replenish the much-needed MP for multiple castings of Zodiac.
This is also necessary since the female thief can walk past the charmed
DT since it is now an ally for the enemy.  By placing student unit with
Item behind the DT, the female thief still can't access Plateau1
because of the situated topography.  In my experience, once the thief
charmed the DT, she didn't attempt to charm anyone else and stayed in
the general vicinity.  On one occasion, the student I had with Item was
a male, and the enemy thief not once tried to charm him though he was
in charming range.

If for some reason the thief manages to get on Plateau1, abandon the
plateau, which includes uncharming the DT.  If the thief is stubborn
and meanders on Plateau1, then move everyone towards Plateau2, which is
at the opposite end of the map.  The thief will then leave Plateau1 and
you can go back to it and start over.

Once the thief is Don't Move'd and everything else is in place, when
the DT's turn comes, he will cast Zodiac.  When he's charging to cast
Zodiac, have the Draw Out unit cast Kiyomouri for Shell.  If a unit is
not in range, have the Math Skill unit(s) back the spell up with a
casting of Shell.  When I first tried this method out I cast Kiyomouri
way too early, and wouldn't you know exactly before my DT cast Zodiac,
the shell wore out...talk about a chorus of death cries!  Thankfully,
Reis with her superior HP survived (with like 8 HP left) and was the
primary Math Skiller able to revive the others.  Therefore, I recommend
to cast Kiyomouri after the DT charges for Zodiac. The casting of
Zodiac may take a while, so remember to continuously cast Don't Move on
the DT (and the female thief if applicable), so that things won't get
messy.  Make sure that everyone is in the effect area so you can assess
right after the first casting whether anyone needs his or her Faith
lowered (for those that don't listen).  After the casting of Zodiac,
one of your students will be asked if you want to learn Zodiac.  Say
"Yes" of course (one time I said "No" just to be bold).  Use Hi-Ethers
to replenish the DT's MP.  As long as the DT stays on that key panel
(with Don't Move) along with the unit with Item behind him, then the
process will repeat itself rather quickly.  Repeat this entire routine
if you have another set of Human Units to learn Zodiac.  This battle
should not even take an hour and you have 4 students who have learned
Zodiac!  This is definitely faster than all other methods to date.
Moreover, this isn't difficult to execute either.


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What if you only have male summoners who have already learned some
summons?  The DT should still cast Zodiac.  I did a test where I taught
my students through Ramza, who was a mastered summoner.  The first time
he was charmed, he cast Bahamut.  Funny enough, the question came to
one of my students, "Would you like to learn Bahamut?"  There was
another time he cast Cyclops.  I think I know the reason he chose those
summons.  The AI won't be excessive with its spell casting.  Not all of
my characters were Shelled when Ramza chose to cast Bahamut and
Cyclops.  The damage that Bahamut/Cyclops was scheduled to take was
enough to kill one of my units, since I didn't cast Shell (remember
that Ramza has the MA of a female and my particular Ramza has 87
Faith).  So essentially the AI won't cast Zodiac if it doesn't have to.
When all my characters had shell (with Magic Defend Up of course), the
charmed Ramza cast Zodiac, since Zodiac was closest to killing my units
damage-wise being more potent than Bahamut/Cyclops.

If a low-level summon is cast (Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, or Titan), then
you'll need to spread out your units more.  The diagram below gives
possible places for student placement.

$ = Designated Teacher (DT)
~ = Possible panels units should be placed
% = Allied unit that has "Item"
1 = Refers to Trap 1
2 = Refers to Trap 2
3 = Refers to Trap 3


                                     $
                                 # 3 % #
                                 ~ X X X
                                 X 2 X ~
                                 ~ X ~
                                 ~ 1 X
                              [Edge of Map]

Unfortunately, the AI isn't as efficient in its placement of spells as
it is in choosing them.  You will most likely have to rotate the
students (save the student with Item for last if needs be), since the
AI will not cast Zodiac at a spot where it will hit everyone.  All in
all this shouldn't be a problem, since Zodiac is such a teasing spell
because of its power and range.  So essentially, there is no reason why
anyone cannot use this method.  I hope this FAQ proved useful and the
explanation of this method was clear and readable.

(c)Stewart Bertram

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