Clothes from a foreign land.
Description
The Judo Uniform is a mid game light armor piece in Final Fantasy IX that everyone but Steiner and Freya can wear. It teaches Distract, which has enemies miss against the character more often, and HP+10%. The Judo Uniform provides a bonus to the wearer's Strength and Spirit when they level up with it equipped. The uniform is missable, but has no unique abilities and is not needed for synthesis.
Obtain[]
The Judo Uniform is bought from 5,000 gil from Oeilvert, Desert Palace, and Esto Gaza after the events in Desert Palace. All of these locations become inaccessible when the player enters the Shimmering Island portal.
Mechanics[]
The Judo Uniform provides 23 Defense, mitigating damage from physical attacks. The vest gives a +1 bonus to the wearer's Strength and Spirit when they level up with it equipped. When enough "bonuses" upon level up from gear have been accrued, the character gains a permanent stat increase. Strength factors into damage calculations and HP growth, whereas Spirit affects various things such as the HP a character is revived at, the duration of expirable statuses, the frequency Regen and Poison tick, how often the character can enter Trance and how many turns they get while in Trance, among other things.
Use[]
The Judo Uniform is already surpassed by the Gaia Gear by the time it can first be bought if the player prioritized Chocobo Hot and Cold progression. Even if the player did not get the Gaia Gear from a chocograph yet, it is found in Oeilvert, where the even better Power Vest is also found. It can still be worth buying the Judo Uniform when it is available as the locations that sell it will become inaccessible.
Distract and HP+10% are both good abilities to master, though the party may have already done so from previous equipment. The Judo Uniform's level up bonuses are good, though it is not advised to level-grind early on unless the player is stuck in a boss or a dungeon; level grinding and min-maxing are unnecessary in a normal playthrough even when preparing for superbosses. The best stat boost gear will be available in the end of the game, so for best results one would need to limit their EXP intake.
The guest characters from Tantalus can also wear the Judo Uniform though the player cannot equip them with it in a normal playthrough.
Etymology and origin[]
As many equipment pieces in Final Fantasy IX, the Judo Uniform is based on a light armor piece from Final Fantasy Tactics.
Jujutsu is a Japanese martial art and a method of close combat for defeating an armed and armored opponent in which one uses no weapon or only a short weapon.