Venom (Final Fantasy IX)

Venom is a negative status in Final Fantasy IX that flags the afflicted as defeated for Game Over purposes, similar to Petrify and Stop. The envenomated will passively lose 1/16th of their maximum HP and MP simultaneously at certain intervals, similar to how Poison and Regen work. Venom is characterized by green and purple bubbles coming from the character, and a bottle symbol in the status windows. The same healing methods and immunity ability that target Poison also work for Venom.

It works on many non-boss enemies, but the player only has one method of inflicting it: Amarant's Scissor Fangs with Add Status. Other instant-defeat methods are more readily available (Death, Stop, Break, Doom).

Mechanics[]

The damage is 1/16th of the afflicted's maximum HP and MP, and is non-elemental and cannot be mitigated with Shell. A "hit" timer acts as spacer between the addition or subtraction of HP and MP.

Interval: Spirit * 80

The higher the afflicted's Spirit stat, the less often they lose HP and MP.

Each hit timer reset has the effect of an extra deduction from the duration timer. When less remains of the hit timer than can be wholly deducted from, that, too, must be accounted for. It is possible that neither will make a difference to how many hits the target will receive in most cases, but for the sake of technical accuracy, it means that two formulas are required.

If the hit timer is evenly divisible by the rate of deduction, this formula can be used to calculate how many hits will be given:

[Time limit / (Hit timer + Rate of deduction)]

If the hit timer is not evenly divisible by the rate of deduction, the formula requires some extra steps:

[Time limit / (Hit timer + (R.o.d. * 2) - (Hit timer MOD R.o.d.))]

Abilities[]

Weapon	Scissor Fangs 15% (Add Status)

Enemy abilities[]

Ability	Description	Enemy
Venom Breath	Inflicts Venom to one target.	Chimera, Grand Dragon, Whale Zombie, Worm Hydra
Venom Powder	Inflicts Venom to one target.	Lich, Lich (Crystal), Meltigemini

Protection[]

Support ability	Antibody

Enemies[]

The following enemies are immune to Venom: