8 Most Fun Exploits In Final Fantasy Games

For the most part, the Final Fantasy games strive to maintain a certain level of polish. These games are held to such a high standard in terms of their technical performance that a game-breaking exploit becomes the stuff of legends.

This is why some of the best exploits in Final Fantasy have become legendary in their own right. Players love the idea of discovering and using these game-breaking actions to load themselves up with valuable items, defeat the toughest bosses with a single hit, and level up their party in no time.

8 Overflow Glitch

Requires A Massive Grind But Is Still Satisfying To Pull Off

Final Fantasy 7 is one of the greatest video games ever made, serving as a notable transition into 3D that fans couldn’t get enough of back in the day. It also seemed to be relatively bug-free, with most of its exploitable gameplay elements only arriving after an unreal grind.

Such is the case with the damage overflow glitch that has appeared multiple times in the Final Fantasy games but is most popular for its appearance in the seventh mainline entry. By gaming the formula and breaking the damage metrics of the game, players can obliterate enemies by triggering a damage overflow and killing enemies in a single hit regardless of how strong they are. The Death Penalty is the most reliable way to trigger this glitch, but the grind involved in powering up this weapon is so immense that most players would prefer to invest their time somewhere else instead.

7 Grinding In The Peninsula Of Power

An Oversight Allowed Players To Fight Stronger Enemies And Level Up A Ton In No Time

Depending on where players are on the world map in Final Fantasy, they will encounter enemies appropriate for their level. However, there’s one instance where this situation doesn’t apply, with a developer oversight leading to an innocuous-looking peninsula becoming a great hub for players to level up.

This area has been dubbed the Peninsula of Power and can be found in the northeast section of Pravoka, where enemies from the Lufenia region can appear instead. While these enemies can be a nightmare to deal with, players who expect these encounters can prepare accordingly to take out these foes with certain strategies and increase their levels considerably in no time.

6 Using The Comrade Overdrive Against Tough Opponents

Enemies Like Tonberries Can Help Party Members Max Out Their Overdrives In No Time

Systems

Released

December 17, 2001

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

Overdrives can be customized in Final Fantasy 10 so that they charge up with various actions. The traditional way of taking damage to unlock these Limit Breaks is great, but players who want to face off against enemies with hard-hitting attacks and insta-kill moves can use the Comrade Overdrive to charge up these bars in no time.

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It’s an exploit that lets players unleash powerful Overdrives multiple times in battles against the strongest opponents in Final Fantasy 10, which is a great way to enjoy these over-the-top cinematics and power moves. It may be simple but is a godsend against enemies who are walloping the entire party with powerful abilities and the like.

5 Zone Out Glitch

Great For Respawning Easy-To-Kill Monsters That Reward The Party With High Stats

Final Fantasy 12 has many special enemies who drop a ton of experience, license points, and gil when defeated. Players have figured out a way to acquire these rewards without permanently removing this lucrative enemy from the battlefield courtesy of the Zone Out glitch.

This glitch is commonly used against Dustia, an undead Rare Game enemy who can be defeated with a single Phoenix Down. Triggering the Zone Out glitch tricks the game into thinking that the enemy had never been spawned, allowing players to endlessly farm the rewards of this foe without losing out on this encounter for good.

4 Focusing On Junctions Instead Of Levels

Players Smart About Stocking And Assigning Magic Can Obliterate The Game And Its Level Scaling

Final Fantasy 8‘s Junction system was a novel idea, but it didn’t take long for fans to find out that it could be exploited to help the party become way stronger than they have any right to be. This, coupled with the game’s level scaling, means that players will make the game easier by drawing 99 units of a lucrative spell and junctioning it to their stats while avoiding gaining any experience or levels.

It’s an inherently ridiculous idea for a game to become harder as players gain levels, even if the Junction system can help curb this difficulty. Players should use Enc-None to face no random encounters and use Card and Petrify against mandatory battles to not gain any levels, which is made easier with boss fights that only give AP.

3 W-Item Duplication

A Great Way To Duplicate Powerful Items

The W-Item materia was meant to let players use two items in one turn to make battles easier, but players figured out a great exploit they could use with this item as long as they had two copies of the thing they wanted to duplicate. The next step arrived in any random battle.

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After selecting the item that players want to duplicate, players must select it again and back out. They’ll notice that the item duplicates, which leads to a ridiculous situation where players acquire 99 Megaelixirs, X-Ethers, Hero Potions, and other rare items in a few minutes.

2 The Vanish-Doom Bug

Can Kill Every Monster And Boss In The Game Without Fail

One of the most legendary exploits in the Final Fantasy series that turned every boss fight into a joke, the original release of Final Fantasy 6 featured this game-breaking bug that fans were elated to learn about. It involves combining the Vanish & Doom spells to instantly kill every enemy in the game without fail.

The properties of Vanish cause its target to avoid any physical damage but remain vulnerable to magical damage instead. However, this had the unintended side effect of removing any resistance that enemies had, including the ability to negate instant death techniques. This means that any vanished enemy could succumb to a cast of Doom, which was a foolproof tactic that worked on everything from run-of-the-mill enemies to the game’s final boss.

1 Using Phoenix Down On Undead Bosses

A Satisfying Exploit That Can Be Executed In Multiple Final Fantasy Games

• Appears in multiple Final Fantasy games

One of the quirkiest exploits in the series that shows why Final Fantasy serves its place on the JRPG throne, players are well aware of the effects that healing items have on undead foes. It’s always fun to cast healing spells on these enemies and watch them take damage, allowing White Mages to unleash some impressive damage numbers on these foes.

This also means that any technique or item that revives someone will deplete all the health of an undead foe, leading to comical situations where an imposing foe can be taken out with a single use of a Phoenix Down. Seeing bosses like Phantom Train and Siren fall to this simple item is a memorable moment that many Final Fantasy fans remember to this day.

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