Glossary of Terms

The following is a list of common in-game terms which do not have their own article of the same title, are commonly confused, and/or may refer to more than one distinct concept. Links which refer to entries within this page are preceded by a hashtag (#) sign.

Ability
When used as a noun, includes all battle actions (selected by swiping right on a character such as Magic Abilities and Special Abilities) and passive skills.

When used as an adjective preceding, it refers to an item which may be equipped to a unit's ability slot.

Used interchangeably with Skill.

Battle
A term to describe combat of Player vs. Player (Arena) or more commonly Player vs. Environment. Often the terms dungeon or stage will be used interchangeably to mean the same thing. For magnus skills, a "battle" refers to the entirety of a dungeon. If the dungeon has multiple waves (e.g. March of the Beasts) or multiple battles (e.g. story event, exploration), then it will still be considered a "battle."

Breaker
A type of unit role in which a unit has skills that can break, or decrease an enemy's stats (ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR).

Not to be confused with a Debuffer.

More details at Mechanics.

Chaining

 * Main article: Chaining

Cooldown
A type of skill that becomes available after a set number of turns. Its icon will go dark and block the player's access, but every turn a portion of it will light up as a new turn ticks by until it becomes available again.

In-game descriptions will describe this as a SP ability.

Debuffer
A broad term for describing a unit's role of decreasing various parameter stats. This may include imperils (elemental resistance), Status Ailments, enfeeblements, and stat breaks.

Not to be confused with Breaker.

Dungeon

 * Main article: Dungeons

Enhancement
An in-game term to describe the process of leveling units or increasing their stats.

A JP term to describe what is formally referred to as Ability Awakening. Can be abbreviated as "enh."

Equipment
An item which is either a(n) Weapon, Armor, or Accessory.

Events
A scheduled period of time that may feature new monsters, missions, and items. The different event types are as follows: Challenge, Exploration, King Mog, Raid, Story, and Non-standard.

Expeditions

 * Main article: Expedition

Quests that units may be sent on to earn experience and other materials, such as awakening materials, potions, magicite, trust moogles, etc. Expeditions must be funded with gil by the player, and the dispatched units will be unusable until the expedition returns.

Exploration

 * Main article: Explorations

Gravity
Can refer to the spell Gravity. Often used as a way to describe a type of effect that reduces a target's HP by a fixed percentage.

Guts
Can refer to the Guts ability. Often used as a way to describe a type of effect that, with a certain probability (often 100%), prevents a unit from dying one time when their HP is above a certain percentage while retaining a small amount of HP (often 1% or 1 HP).

Hybrid Damage
A combination of and. A simple but accurate way of thinking about hybrid damage is that you're attacking with half of the as physical damage and the other half modifier as magic damage.

More details at Mechanics.

Magic Damage
Damage calculated based on your MAG and your target's SPR.

More details at Mechanics.

Magnus
A type of skill that has a limited number of uses per battle and cannot be recovered in any way.

Materia
An item that bestows an ability and which is not a piece of equipment.

This term is never encountered during normal game play, but is used on by the community to distinguish ability items from those skills which a unit may learn innately or acquire from an Esper.

Mission

 * Main article: Mission

An objective which, if available, is listed on the first screen after selecting a stage (before companion selection). These goals must be satisfied during a stage for a reward (usually lapis and other items but may be something else for certain Event stages).

Not to be confused with quest.

Physical Damage
Damage calculated based on your ATK and your target's DEF.

More details at Mechanics.

Quest
An ambiguous term which usage depends on context. When used without a qualifier (such as Story Quest), it may refer to:
 * 1) . The objectives listed on the Quest List page.
 * 2) . Dungeons, Explorations, and stages.

To avoid confusion this wiki should use stage when referring to the latter and reserve quest for the former.

See also entry for and article on General Quests. Not to be confused with.

Rewards Wheel

 * Main article: Rewards Wheel

A feature for watching ads in order to receive rewards. Limited to 5 spins per day, the player spins a wheel to receive one of the following rewards: 5/10/50/150 lapis, 1 or 2 nrg refills. Colloquially referred to as the "Ad Wheel."

Skill
When used as a noun, includes all battle actions (selected by swiping right on a character such as Magic Abilities and Special Abilities) and passive skills.

Used interchangeably with Ability.

Skill Modifier
A multiplier of your basic attack damage. For example, Mirror of Equity has a skill modifier of 1.2 and thus deals on average 1.2 times the damage of your basic attack.

SPR
The statistic which mitigates magic damage. This is an abbreviation of spirit.

Stage
A location in the game which generally requires energy to access; the only stages which do not require energy are the Boss Trials in the Farplane. This wiki generally does not use this term when referencing Colosseum rounds even though the game may show a "Stage Clear" reward screen when rounds are completed.

The term stage should be used instead of quest on this wiki when applicable to avoid confusion. See also entry for.

Status Ailments
Harmful effects that can be inflicted on both ally and foe alike during battle. For more information about the mechanics and resisting, nullifying, removing, and inflicting status ailments, see Status Ailments.

Status Effects
A buff or debuff to an ally's or foe's stats (ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR) during battle, which can be dispelled by various means.

Story Quest
Generally synonymous with dungeon, these are stages accessible via the World Map which have a maroon-colored background. (Not explorations or Esper battles, which have a green background)

Trial
Generally refers to any of the battles found in the Nemeses tab of the Vortex.

Originally referred to the Chamber of the Fallen, which was formerly the Vortex of Trials prior to Version 2.0.0.

True Doublehand

 * For more information: Equipment Stats

Based on the passive ability of the same name, an effect that boosts the equipment [STAT] of any weapon. Separate from normal [STAT] percentages, the flat [STAT] from equipment adds a portion of it to a unit's overall total. Abbreviated as TDH.

True Dual Wield

 * For more information: Equipment Stats

An effect that boosts the equipment [STAT] of any weapon. Separate from normal [STAT] percentages, the flat [STAT] from equipment adds a portion of it to a unit's overall total. Abbreviated as TDW.

Variance

 * Main article: Weapon Variance

Vortex
The in-game menu where Events, Enhance, Nemeses, Challenge of the Brave, and other Special Vortex may be accessed.

Wave
When a dungeon has multiple battles, one after another, it is referred to as a wave. In-game this may be indicated as "Battle 1 / 3", which means there are 3 waves and the player is on the first wave.