Speed Plus is an Independent Materia in Final Fantasy VII. When equipped, it increases the user's Dexterity, which determines the speed of their ATB gauge in battle, as well as their Defense% (chance to evade enemy attacks) and Attack% (chance to hit). It increases by 10% at first level, up to a 50% increase at level 5. The maximum Dexterity is 255.
Obtained[]
Speed Plus is earned as a Battle Square prize. It costs 20480 BP before obtaining the Tiny Bronco, 12800 BP after, and 4000 after obtaining the Highwind.
Stats[]
| Level | AP required | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | Increases Dexterity by 10%. |
| 2 | 15000 | Increases Dexterity by 20%. |
| 3 | 30000 | Increases Dexterity by 30%. |
| 4 | 60000 | Increases Dexterity by 40%. |
| 5 | 100000 | Increases Dexterity by 50%. |
Use[]
Speed Plus boosts a character's Dexterity. This stat primarily affects the Active Time Battle timer, which fills up faster for characters with a higher Dexterity. A quarter of Dexterity also determines the Attack%, the character's hit rate, and their Defense%, the character's evasion. It increases Dexterity up to 255.
Speed Plus is useful to equip on any character that has a spare Materia slot for it, as battle speed is always useful. When determining whom to give it to, there are a variety of options. It can either be given to whichever character deals most damage to allow them to hit more often, to a healer to allow them to respond to danger more quickly, to a character with low Dexterity to alleviate their low speed, or two a character with high Dexterity to capitalize on it. Cloud, Barret, Aeris, Cait Sith, Vincent, and Cid have low Dexterity, while Tifa, Red XIII, and Yuffie have much higher Dexterity.
Another way to get more turns in battle is to equip Sprint Shoes for Auto-Haste. An alternative way to increase Dexterity is to use Speed Sources, which permanently increase a character's Dexterity by 1 each time one is used. However, there are hard to come by, as there are a limited number of these without using Morph. This makes upgrading a character's Dexterity to 255 is time-consuming. This means that Speed Plus is better early on. Another alternative, if the goal is simply to allow a character to attack more often, is to use Counter Attack or Magic Counter.