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Wild Arms Spell FAQ
Copyright: 2018 t_Rex
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Why I Wrote this FAQ
Welcome to my Wild Arms spell FAQ. I have had this game for a number
of years and it came to my attention that it was getting a re-release
on the Playstation Classic. Thus, I dusted my copy off, put it into
my PS2, and started playing. While I was playing I couldn’t help but
notice that the in-game description of many of the spells is
ambiguous at best and leaves a lot up to the imagination. I
experimented with these ambiguously described spells in an effort to
determine their functions as well as if they are actually of any use.
My personal descriptions of all the spells in Wild Arms are listed
below.
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Information Layout for Each Spell
Spell name: MP cost, In-game spell description, my personal rating
My description
Spell name: Exactly as it sounds. The name of the spell from Wild
Arms
MP cost: How much MP the spell costs to cast.
In game spell description: How the spell’s function is described in
the menus and magic guilds in game.
My personal rating: I ranked each spell on a scale of 1-5 based on
my opinion of it’s usefulness. Spells that I found incredibly useful
I rated at a five while spells that I found to be virtually useless I
rated a one. These rankings are based on my personal opinion.
My description: My personal description of each spell. I did this
in attempt to clear up ambiguity of many of the in-game descriptions
of spells that Wild Arms provides.
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Other Stuff to Note About this FAQ
1) In an effort to clear up ambiguity, I use a lot of terminology
from other RPG’s I have played interchangeably with some of the
terminology found in Wild Arms (e.g., When I mention “inability to
fight” status I am referring to a character at 0HP. I describe this
as KO status a number of times, a term I took from the Final Fantasy
franchise).
2) When the term “attribute” appears it is referring to the fire,
water, earth, thunder, wind, holy, and evil attributes found in Wild
Arms. I swap “attribute” with “elemental” frequently.
3) When the term “ability” appears it seems to be referring to a
party member’s or monster’s inherent stats. Parry (PRY) and Sorcery
(SOR) are examples of abilities. I am not 100% certain about this,
though…
4) I use the term “specialty attack” to describe attacks used by
monsters that seem to be physical in nature. Examples of “specialty
attacks” include Gella Eater and Pickpocket.
5) I use the term “magic based attack” to describe attacks used by
foes that seem to possess a magical property but are not included in
the spell set Cecilia acquires throughout the game. Examples of
“magic based attacks” include Flametongue and Gaia Crash.
6) There are seven elemental properties in Wild Arms and they are
fire, earth, water, wind, thunder, holy and evil. This is useful
knowledge to have going forward from here.
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Simple White Magic
Geo
Fray
Wing
Muse
Geo
Shield
Suction
Hide
Protect
Fray
Curse
Light
Blow
Rage
Dark
Blow
Wing
Reflect
Escape
Quick
Air
Screen
Muse
Revive
Awaken
Field
Heal
Air Screen, 4MP, Increase parry rate/ally, 1/5
A buff that increases parry rate. With the exception of Jack, the
remainder of the party’s inherent parry rate (PRY) is typically low
even at the end of the game. A 25% boost to parry rate (which this
spell confers) is unlikely to make any significant difference in the
party’s odds for victory in virtually any circumstance.
Additionally, this buff only targets a single ally further decreasing
it’s utility. Even early on, when this spell first becomes
available, there are many far better buffs a player can choose from
instead.
Awaken, 2MP, Wake from sleep/party, 2/5
Since there are no accessories that grant immunity to the sleep
abnormal status (except maybe the Full Libra?) I guess this spell has
some utility. I never had the chance to use it, though, even in
instances where I had party members suffering from the sleep status.
This was largely due to the fact that spells that afflict the sleep
status ailment typically target the whole party and generally leave
Cecilia in the sleep status. As a result of this, this spell loses
pretty much all of it’s utility.
Curse, 1MP, Increase encounter rate, 2/5
This spell increases random enemy encounter rates. I did not find
much use for it outside of using it to get into quick fights on the
world map to try out new spells that I had made at the magic guild or
trying to master one of Jack’s Fast Draw hints close to a town.
Dark Blow, 2MP, Cast Evil on weapon/ally, 3/5
Dark Blow serves as the only spell that will allow the party to have
access to the evil elemental before the advanced spell set become
available. This “saber type” spell can be cast on any party member
to infuse their weapon with the evil elemental giving them evil based
physical attacks for the remainder of the battle. Unfortunately, it
may take a turn to see Dark Blow’s effect at which point the battle
will probably be mostly complete. However, manipulating the RES stat
to allow Cecilia to go before either Jack or Rudy and then casting
Dark Blow on either of them before they attack would allow the
spell’s effect to be activated in the same turn. For these reasons,
this spell loses some of it’s utility.
Escape: 8MP, Warp to dungeon entrance, 5/5
A great spell to have to quickly exit a dungeon after a boss fight
when it is possible that the party will be low on MP and other
resources. I recommend acquiring this spell early on for exactly
that reason.
Field: 2MP, 50% attribute field/all, 1/5
This spell reduces the damage the party takes to a particular element
by 50%. The chosen element is chosen randomly from the seven
different elements in Wild Arms but the spell can be cast multiple
turns in a row to halve damage from multiple elemental types. Magic
based attacks ignore Field’s effect regardless of if they have
“earth”, “fire”, or something similar in their title. Thus, Field
only reduces damage from enemy spells having the same titles as
spells Cecilia can acquire at the Magic Guild. Not a very useful
spell.
Heal: 3MP, Recover partial HP/ally, 5/5
A very useful spell early on and maintains great utility late game.
The spell does exactly what the in-game description implies that it
does: recovers a single party member’s HP partially. Heal’s utility
declines somewhat when both Hi-Heal and Remedy become available as
they are much more effective for keeping the party healthy during
tough fights. However, Heal always provides an MP cost efficient way
to top off party members’ HP in the field commands menu.
Hide: 5MP, Avoid an attack/ally, 2/5
Hide allows a party member to avoid physical attacks as long as it is
active. Defending, using skills, and using items will all keep the
Hide status active on the target it was cast on while using a
physical attack or counter attacks will break it. Magic based
attacks and specialty attacks will ignore Hide status. I didn’t
think that this spell was that useful.
Light Blow: 2MP, Cast Holy on weapon/ally, 3/5
This spell operates the exact same way as Dark Blow with the
exception that it is holy elemental based instead. For that reason,
see the Dark Blow description.
Protect: 2MP, Increases MGR/ally, 2/5
Not a very useful spell. Protect raises a single party member’s MGR
decreasing damage taken from magic attacks. There is no Hi-Protect
and few bosses use strong magic attacks. These two features make it
unlikely that a Protect oriented strategy in any boss fight would be
much of a viable option. Additionally, there are many far better
buffs to use in virtually any instance where a player would be
looking to buff up using Protect.
Quick: 3MP, Increase response/ally, 5/5
For a lowly three MP Cecilia can cast a spell that increases the
Response (RES) stat of an ally by 50% for the remainder of the
battle. This is definitely one of the better buffs in Wild Arms as
it can be used to manipulate character turns to great effects in long
battles such as boss fights. Personally, I preferred casting it on
Cecilia to ensure that she would be able to act before many of the
bosses I fought during the course of the game. This spell’s utility
is further enhanced when it is couple with the black magic spell Slow
Down. Unfortunately, there is no Hi-Quick.
Rage: 4MP, Overcome with anger/ally 2/5
When cast, Rage indicates that it offers a 10% boost to all
abilities. I am not entirely sure what the game means by abilities
(if it is stats or what not) but the target of Rage gains a
significant boost to attack power and also acquires a nice HP regen
effect. Unfortunately, control of the target is lost for the
remainder of the battle and the target will do nothing but physically
attack until the battle is over. For those reasons, I didn’t find it
useful.
Reflect: 6MP, Reflect back magic/ally, 2/5
I never used this spell outside of trying to figure out what it did.
This spell reflects back magic against the target that cast it.
Recovery type spells cast by Cecilia, such as Heal, will go through
reflect status but magic based specialty attacks (e.g. Holy Light)
used by foes will ignore it too. Being able to recover HP and buff
up with magic even with reflect status active are nice features. In
spite of these nice features, I still didn’t find this spell very
useful.
Revive: 12MP, Recover senses/ally, 4/5
The first of many ambiguous spell descriptions given in Wild Arms.
Anyways, revive brings back to life any party member who is in
“inability to fight” status (in other terms has 0HP or has been
KO’ed). Early on Revive is a very costly spell but it’s true appeal
lies in the fact that by having the spell to draw on a player can
avoid using a rare Revive Fruit item in order to bring back a
character from “inability to fight” status.
Shield: 2MP, Increases defense/ally, 3/5
This spell is somewhat useful as it raises the defense of a single
party member decreasing damage from physical attacks. This spell
most likely will not be used in random encounters and will be
occasionally useful in boss fights. The only time I found some use
for this spell was when I had a turn available for Cecilia during
boss fights when I didn’t need to cast Heal on anyone. When Hi-
Shield becomes available this spell’s utility drops off
significantly.
Suction: 3MP, Absorb magic as MP/ally, 2/5
This spell can be cast on any one of the three party members (Rudy
would probably be a poor choice due to him not having any MP). Once
cast, suction allows the target to receive as MP the cost of any
spell cast against them. Magic based attacks, outside of spells,
ignore Suction status. I didn’t find much use for this spell but I
suppose it could be used as a method to restore some MP if either
Jack or Cecilia are running low.
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Advanced White Magic
Geo
Fray
Wing
Muse
Geo
Hi-
Shield
Hyper
Invisibl
e
Life
Guard
Fray
Counter
Up
Bomb
Soul
Guard
Anti
Magic
Wing
Hi-
Reflect
Dummy
Doll
Teleport
Lock
State
Muse
Hi-
Revive
Remedy
Restore
Hi-Heal
Anti Magic: 12MP, An anti magic field, 1/5
Cecilia casts a spell that negates the effects of all magical spells
used by both enemies and allies. This ranges from damage dealt by
spells to the effect of restorative spells and buffs. Foes’ magic
based attacks will go right through Anti Magic which makes it seem
that Anti Magic does more harm to the party than to the enemy. For
this reason, Anti Magic is not a very good spell.
Bomb: 6MP, Bomb counter attack/ally, 1/5
Cecilia casts a spell on a single party member that allows for a
single counter to a physical attack. Counter is not activated by
magic damage or enemy specialty attacks. Damage output seems to be
dependent on either the SOR or MGR stats of the spell’s target. This
results in higher counter damage from Cecilia than either Jack or
Rudy. Not a very useful spell as it will be likely that spending a
turn casting it would have been better spent on another spell,
defending, or even physically attacking.
Counter Up: 6MP, Counter rate up 25%/ally, 1/5
Cecilia casts a buff that increases the counter attack rate of a
single ally by 25% for the remainder of the battle. From what it
looked like to me, Counter Up actually raised a characters counter
attack rate to 100% as characters I cast it on countered every
physical attack they received. This is not a very good spell,
though, and there are far better buffs to acquire over Counter Up
first.
Dummy Doll: 6MP, Guard using a dummy/ally, 1/5
This spell creates a shield that negates damage from physical attacks
by creating a “dummy” to protect the target. The “dummy” created by
dummy doll can only withstand a few attacks before it is destroyed
and many attacks will cut right through it. These features greatly
decreases this spell’s utility. I didn’t think that it was very
useful as in instances where I was looking to buff up my party I went
with spells like Quick, Hi-Shield, or Hyper instead.
Hi-Heal: 12MP, Recover full HP/ally, 5/5
This spell is a must have. Hi-Heal completely restores any lost HP.
This spell’s true utility lies in battle where it can be used to
fully restore a party member’s HP who is close to the brink of
“inability to fight”. Not as good in the field commands menu where
Heal can be used to top off characters HP at costs of 3MP instead but
this spell is still very good.
Hi-Reflect: 20MP, Reflect magic field/party, 3/5
More useful than Reflect since it targets all party members but still
not a buff I went with ever. Hi-Reflect shares all the qualities
that it’s lesser counterpart Reflect does except that it targets the
entire party for 20MP. For that reason, see the description on
Reflect.
Hi-Revive: 40MP, Revive and full HP/ally, 3/5
For a whopping 40MP Cecilia can bring back either Jack or Rudy from
“inability to fight” status with full HP. Hi-Revive is the most
expensive spell in the game and even at a high level ponying up the
40MP to cast it is likely to be an unappealing prospect. I suppose
this spell has some merit in some of the harder hitting boss fights
later in the game but personally I would hope that my party wouldn’t
be in such dire straits that I would be considering using it. It is
nice to know that the spell is there to go to, if necessary, and for
that reason I encourage picking it up eventually.
Hi-Shield: 8MP, Increase def. power/party, 4/5
Another excellent buff. Hi-Shield targets the entire party when cast
and raises DFP by 50% for the remainder of the battle. Being able to
target all allies with this spell greatly increases it’s utility and
makes it a solid choice in boss battles. Certain specialty attacks
seem to go through it, though, which hurts it’s overall reliability.
Hyper: 12MP, Double attack power/ally, 5/5
This spell is truly impressive. Hyper lives up to it’s description
in that it doubles a party member’s attack power. Hyper’s impressive
power can truly be observed in boss fights by casting it a Jack which
causes the damage from his Fast Draws to skyrocket. This is
definitely one of the best spells in the advanced category and I
would encourage picking it up as soon as it becomes available.
Invisible: 8MP, Decrease encounter rate, 2/5
Invisible is the opposite of Curse in that it decreases the random
encounter rate. This spell would have been much more useful had it
been effective on the Sweet Candy. Since it is not, it really isn’t
that good.
Life Guard: 30MP, Avoid exhaustion/ally, 3/5
Life Guard will automatically bring back any ally it is cast on from
“inability to fight” status. Allies revived by Life Guard come back
to the fight with very little HP which makes healing a high priority
the next turn. This spell has some benefits against hard hitting
foes by allowing the party to maintain the majority of it’s momentum
in battle even after a party member is KO’ed. This is definitely a
buff worthy of acquiring, but I would wait on picking it up until I
had some of the more powerful spells in the advanced magic category.
Lock State: 15MP, Lock status state/party, 0/5
I could not figure out what this spell does even after experimenting
with it under a variety of conditions. For that reason I gave it a 0
for usefulness.
Remedy: 12MP, Recover partial HP/party, 5/5
An excellent spell especially in boss battles. Remedy restores a
sizable amount of HP to all three party members when cast. This
takes a lot of pressure off of boss battles since Cecilia can recover
everybodys’ HP with a single spell in one turn. The trick is getting
her turn out front…
Restore: 4MP, Cure abnormal status/ally, 5/5
This spell is very useful. For only 4MP, Restore will remove any
abnormal status ailment that a party member is suffering from. Very
useful when a party member is afflicted with two or more status
ailments.
Soul Guard: 18MP, Prevent fatal blows/ally, 2/5
A spell that protects a single ally from instant death attacks. I
felt that instant death attacks were rare in the game and that in
tougher fights getting KO’ed from attacks that dealt a high amount of
damage was more common. For that reason I preferred Life Guard, but
that is my opinion.
Teleport: 12MP, Warp to a known town, 5/5
Another great spell that quickly allows the party to move between
towns they have already visited. Great especially when traveling on
the Sweet Candy, since random encounters on the sea can be rather
annoying, but the spell does lose some of it’s utility once the
Protowing becomes available.
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Simple Black Magic
Geo
Fray
Wing
Muse
Geo
Break
Slow
Down
Sleep
Arm.
Down
Fray
Flash
Flame
Confusio
n
Blast
Wing
Valkyrie
Silence
Vortex
Spark
Muse
Analyze
Dispell
Prison
Freeze
Analyze: 1MP, Study enemy’s abilities, 5/5
Analyze is a great spell for pretty much the entire the game. When
used on an enemy, Analyze reveals the foes HP, MP, as well as
elemental weakness. Using Analyze along with elemental attack magic
is a great way to quickly eliminate foes, via their elemental
weaknesses, before they can inflict too much damage on the party.
One downfall of Analyze is that a turn must be spent in order to use
a spell that will neither cause damage to a foe nor allow Cecilia to
cast a buff on a party member. However, once a monster’s weakness is
discovered it can be repeatedly exploited without the use of Analyze!
Another problem with Analyze is that it is ineffective against
bosses. This certainly is a factor that contributes to putting
Cecilia in a supporting role against the majority of bosses fought
throughout the game.
Arm. Down, 3MP, Reduce defense/group, 4/5
Although this spell targets a group, I found it’s highest utility to
be in boss fights. This is because Arm. Down lowers the physical
defense (DFP) of a group by 50% for the remainder of the fight. This
is definitely more useful is a long, drawn-out boss fights vs. the
random encounters in Wild Arms which are typically over in two rounds
of combat. Arm. Down does not work 100% of the time but it is still
a better bet in boss fights than Cecilia’s elemental attack spells.
Due to it’s excellent function in boss fights, this spells ranks high
in utility for pretty much the entirety of the game.
Blast: 8MP, A powerful blast/group, 5/5
Blast is a decent spell especially as the game progresses and Cecilia
acquires more MP. Blast allows for a non-elemental magic attack
against a group of foes. This is great against groups of foes that
don’t have an elemental weakness. The damage from Blast is usually
not sufficient to KO an entire group of monsters so it will usually
need to be backed up with an attack like Jack’s Sonic Buster or
Rudy’s Prism Ray to achieve the desired effect.
Break: 4MP, Earth magic/enemy, 4/5
Break is the first of many single target, elemental attack spells
that Cecilia acquires of the simple black magic type. Break is
useful for exploiting earth elemental weaknesses in foes and the
damage is typically enough to one-shot most random enemies weak to
the earth element. Break (as well as the three other single target,
elemental attacks spells) is not as useful in boss fights where more
viable strategies include using Cecilia’s turn to either cast buffs
or de-buffs. That is my opinion as well as the strategy I took at
least.
Confusion: 2MP, Confuse the enemy, 1/5
Confuse is the first of many black magic spells that inflict a status
ailment. As the name implies Confusion inflicts the confusion status
on a target. The confusion status aliment causes the afflicted to
mindlessly, physically attack thin air thus rendering them non-
threatening. I don’t see where this sort of spell would be useful as
to me it makes more sense to use a spell like Flame or Freeze and go
right for the kill on a foe if possible. I could say much the same
for the other black magic status ailment inflicting spells as well.
Thus, my opinion is that this spell is not that good.
Dispell: 3MP, Nullify magic spell/enemy, 1/5
A spell which when used “dispells magic effects!” on foes. I didn’t
find much use for it as I didn’t find many monsters that used support
magic to buff up. For that reason, I never used it and didn’t think
that it was that good of a spell.
Flame: 4MP, Fire attack magic/enemy, 4/5
Flame is a single target, fire elemental attack. This spell is
useful early on to exploit elemental weaknesses in foes that are weak
to fire. It is also useful late in the game for the same purpose.
Flash: 2MP, Blind all enemies, 1/5
Everything about this spell is confusing. Neither the spell’s name
nor it’s description give an accurate account of what this spell
actually does. Flash inflicts the flash status ailment on all foes
on the screen. The flash status ailment decreases the PRY stat of
those affected to 0 rendering them unable to dodge physical attacks.
A confusing description for a confusing spell that is really not that
good in most situations.
Freeze: 4MP, Water magic/enemy, 4/5
Freeze operates much the same as Flame does except that is a water
elemental spell. Useful for exploiting elemental weaknesses in foes
that are weak to water. This spell is useful early on as well as
late in the game.
Prison: 6MP, Imprison enemy, 3/5
An interesting spell that has a difficult to determine function based
on the ambiguity of it’s in game description. Prison traps a foe in
a polyhedron prison making it unable to act (Nikanoru…). Any foe
trapped in the prison is subject to a one shot KO by any physical or
magic attack that strikes the imprisoned creature. This actually is
a pretty decent spell.
Silence: 4MP, Prevent magic use/group, 2/5
Annoying when a foe casts it on the party but not nearly as effective
when the party uses it on a group of monsters. Silence inflicts the
silence status ailment which prevents the use of attacks that consume
MP. For this reason, Silence not only blocks the use of spells by
the target it is cast on but also prevents the use of specialty
attacks like Pickpocket and magic based attacks like Flametongue.
This causes Silence to pack a bit more of a punch than some of the
other status ailment inflicting spells. That being, said it is hard
to imagine that Silence is going to be the best attack for Cecilia to
use in any enemy encounter in the entire game.
Sleep: 4MP, Make enemy sleep/group, 2/5
A spell that targets an entire group for only 4MP (which is about the
spell’s only redeemable quality). This spell will put any foe that
it hits to sleep for a few turns rendering them unable to act until
the status ailment wears off. The only instances where I could see
this spell being useful is in a random encounter against groups of
foes that don’t have an exploitable, elemental weakness or if I
didn’t want to spend the 8MP needed to cast Blast against a group of
foes. Neither of those occurrences are common which renders Sleep a
poor spell at best.
Slow Down: 3MP, Reduce response/group, 4/5
Slow Down is another excellent de-buff. Slow Down lowers the RES
stat of a group of foes by 50% making their turns come later in a
round of combat. Much like Arm. Down, Slow Down excels in long
battles, like boss fights, where it can be used early on to have a
dramatic effect for the entire fight. Slow Down works well with it’s
white magic counterpart Quick to manipulate party and monster turns
in boss fights which can give the party a huge edge in a long battle.
Slow Down is definitely a spell worth picking up but I would
recommend acquiring all the elemental attack spells first.
Spark: 8MP, Thunder magic/group, 3/5
Unlike the other single target elemental attack spells, Spark targets
a group of foes. The spell costs 8MP, which early on makes it rather
expensive. The spell does seem to have some utility when fighting
monsters on the sea in the Sweet Candy as the majority of foes
encountered in the sea are weak to the thunder elemental. However,
Blast is probably a better overall group attack since it inflicts
non-elemental damage.
Valkyrie: 10MP, A spiritual attack/random, 1/5
A spell in the simple black magic class that targets all foes on the
screens. That being said, this spell is not very useful. Valkyrie
causes Cecilia to emit 8-9 magical orbs that randomly strike foes on
the battle field. The amount of damage taken is determined by how
many of these orbs strike the target(s) which causes some foes to
receive a lot of damage and other foes not so much. The randomness
of Valkyrie makes it unpredictable for damage output and I am not
entirely sure whether the individual orbs bear elemental affinities.
I did not find much use for this spell.
Vortex: 4MP, Wind attack magic/enemy, 4/5
Another single, elemental attack spell. Vortex inflicts wind damage
against a single foe which is useful against foes weak to wind. This
spell, along with the all the other elemental attack spells, go well
with Analyze and provide Cecilia a reliable way to due large amounts
of damage to a variety of foes with varying elemental weaknesses.
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Advanced Black Magic
Geo
Fray
Wing
Muse
Geo
Hi-Break
Eraser
Life
Drain
Saint
Fray
Rainbow
Hi-Flame
Darkness
Hi-Blast
Wing
MP Drain
Lucky
Shot
Hi-
Vortex
Hi-Spark
Muse
Banish
Randomize
r
Hi-
Prison
Hi-
Freeze
Banish: 12MP, Lower HP & ability/enemy, 2/5
Another spell with an ambiguous name. Banish would seem to imply
instant death but this spell hardly does that. What Banish does is
reduce the HP and abilities of a single foe. As a result, targets
inflicted with Banish status have lowered HP, take more damage, and
inflict less damage. This spell’s effect does result in an amusing
animation on the victim it was cast on but this hardly is a
justifiable reason for acquiring this spell early.
Darkness: 15MP, Evil attack magic/enemy, 4/5
Unlike the simple black magic category, the advanced black magic
category actually has an evil elemental attack spell. Darkness
targets a single foe with evil elemental attack magic which makes it
useful against foes weak against the evil elemental. Darkness also
has a high MP cost and only targets a single foe which makes it less
powerful than the Hi-level elemental attack spells in the advanced
category. However, since it is the only attack spell that utilizes
the evil elemental it is pretty useful.
Eraser: 5MP, Erase attr./all enemies, 1/5
Eraser negates all elemental strengths and weaknesses of all foes on
screen. I suppose this could be useful for doing something like
casting Hi-Flame against a group of foes that typically are resistant
to fire damage. That being said, I don’t see where that would be an
efficient strategy for victory in any encounter in Wild Arms and that
makes this spell pretty awful.
Hi-Blast: 22MP, Attack magic/all enemies, 4/5
Hi-Blast is a very powerful non-elemental attack spell. At 22MP it
is rather costly at any point of the game but with a high SOR stat on
Cecilia it is possible to waste every foe on screen using just this
spell. This makes Hi-Blast useful in a pinch but I wouldn’t
recommend relying too heavily on it due to it’s MP cost. I would
also recommend picking it up shortly after it becomes available
largely due to it’s impressive power.
Hi-Break: 15MP, Earth magic/group, 4/5
The first of many “Hi-level” elemental spells in the advanced black
magic category. Hi-Break deals earth elemental damage to a group of
foes (this is in contrast to Break which targets only a single foe).
Spells like Hi-Break cost significantly more MP than their lesser
counterparts which can cause a real drain on Cecilia’s MP if their
use is not closely monitored. More MP means more targets and more
power, though. Overall, this is a pretty good spell and I would
recommend acquiring this spell and the other “Hi-level” elemental
spells as soon as possible in order to give Cecilia a respectable
arsenal of strong magic to draw off of.
Hi-Flame: 15MP, Fire attack magic/group, 4/5
This spell operates similar to Hi-Break the only difference being
that it is fire elemental. Great against groups of foes weak to
fire. I also recommend getting this spell as soon as possible.
Hi-Freeze: 15MP, Water magic/group, 4/5
Another “Hi-level” elemental attack spell this time of the water
element. Hi-Freeze is useful against foes weak to the water
elemental. This spell would be another good investment of a crest
graph once the advanced spells become available.
Hi-Prison: 18MP, Seal in banned area/group, 4/5
Hi-Prison functions exactly like it’s lesser counterpart, Prison,
except for the fact that it targets a group of foes. This spell is
surprisingly useful in multiple regards (see Lucky Shot description)
and has the benefit of targeting a group of foes over just a single
foe. I wouldn’t make acquiring this spell a high priority but I
would certainly make the effort to pick it before acquiring many of
the other lesser advanced spells that become available in the latter
half of the game.
Hi-Spark: 22MP, Thunder magic/all foes, 3/5
Hi-Spark is a thunder elemental attack spell that targets all foes on
the screen. This spell is not as good as Hi-Blast due to it’s
similar MP cost and inherent elemental property. Hi-Blast is by far
more versatile since it costs the same amount of MP to cast and can
be used against a wider range of foes. For those reasons, I would
recommend acquiring Hi-Blast before picking up Hi-Spark.
Hi-Vortex: 15MP, Wind attack magic/group, 4/5
The final “Hi-level” attack spell. Hi-Vortex attacks a group of foes
with the wind elemental. I recommend picking up all the Hi-level
attack spells as soon as possible in order to give Cecilia a large
repertoire of highly damaging elemental attack spells to draw in the
latter segments of the game. Hi-Vortex is no exception to this.
Life Drain: 20MP, Absorb HP/enemy group, 1/5
For 20MP, Cecilia drains a small amount of HP from each foe in an
enemy group and adds it to her own. The HP recovered by Life Drain
is paltry and it’s damage output is awful. These are good enough
reasons to put off getting Life Drain indefinitely without even
considering the multitude of better methods to recover Cecilia’s lost
HP throughout the game.
Lucky Shot: 30MP, …?/enemy, 3/5
It would have been hard for the developers to come up with a much
more ambiguous description for a spell than this one. After studying
this spell I can somewhat appreciate why they may not have been
candid about it’s function. Lucky Shot inflicts a low amount of
damage to a single foe, however, if the damage is sufficient to put
the foe in “inability to fight” status then there is a 100% chance
that the foe will drop an item if they are carrying one. For this
reason, Lucky Shot makes farming the Necronomicon, Cecilia’s best
spell book, much easier and could probably also be used to farm some
other rare items in the game. Lucky Shot can be coupled with spells
like Prison and Hi-Prison to one-shot foes that wouldn’t otherwise
take lethal damage from the low damage output of Lucky Shot. An
interesting spell with a useful function. I would recommend picking
this spell up along with Hi-Prison in order to maximize it’s
usefulness. (Thanks to DavidK519 and his FAQ for information on
acquiring the Necronomicon and the functions of Lucky Shot, Hi-Prison
and Prison spells).
MP Drain: 1MP, Absorb MP/enemy group, 1/5
Cecilia absorbs MP from an enemy group to slightly restore her own
MP. I didn’t find this spell useful at all since the amount of MP it
recovers is negligible. Additionally, many foes don’t have MP to
absorb which further makes this spell a poor resort for restoring
lost MP. If I was really looking to restore lost MP off of monsters’
resources then I would opt for defending and casting Suction since it
seems to restore more MP and can also be used by Jack. My opinion is
that this is a poor spell.
Rainbow, 15MP, All 7 attr. attack/enemy, 1/5
Rainbow strikes a single foe with all 7 of the elements (fire, earth,
water, thunder, wind, holy and evil) in a single attack. This spell
is not that good as a foe’s innate resistance tend to have priority
over their weakness (e.g. I fought a foe weak to water and strong
against fire. Rainbow dealt 0 damage as fire damage taken by this
foe is reduced to 0. Thus the foes’ elemental weakness to water was
deprioritized to it’s resistance to fire). This feature really hurts
this spell’s utility. Additionally, if I was looking to exploit an
elemental weakness in a single foe it would make more sense to just
use the simple attack elemental spell the foe is weak against for
only 4MP. Acquiring this spell ought to be a very low priority since
it is not good at all.
Randomizer: 12MP, Random magic effect, 1/5
Randomizer causes a completely random magic effect (much as it’s in
game description implies). These “effects” range anywhere from
spells Cecilia can acquire at the magic guild, magic based attacks
used by foes (e.g., Gaia Crash), unique buffs, unique de-buffs, and
status ailments that affect the entire party. Randomizer’s effect is
completely unpredictable and may even slap the party with status
ailments that hinder them during combat. For these reasons I don’t
think it was that good, however, it can generate some beneficial,
powerful effects that probably won’t be seen elsewhere in the game.
Saint: 15MP, Holy attack magic/enemy, 4/5
Holy operates the same way that Darkness does in that it targets a
single foe with holy elemental attack magic. Useful since it is the
only attack magic spell that utilizes the holy element. Not so
useful due to its cost and the fact that it targets only a single
foe. In spite of it’s weaknesses, I recommend picking it up fairly
early on once it becomes available.
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Disclaimer
I have no expectation that this is a perfect FAQ and will concede to
overlooking many aspects of these spells while I was writing this
FAQ. I had no part in designing this game and as a result there are
probably many nuances to it that I am not privy too. As a result I
can hardly claim that this is definitive source for this game. Much
of the information in this FAQ is based off my observations and
opinions.
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References
1. Wild Arms PSone game
2. Wild Arms Playstation Instruction Manual
3. WILD ARMS walkthrough and guide by DavidK519
