Is numerology all that good?

I’ve read that that after 17 times of use in a row it can deal over 65,000 damage. When I tried to calculate the damage on a calculator it turned out to be truthful. Do you think this would work well against zeromus in the Stilshrine of Miriam?

I’ve never heard of that, but its worth a shot

I don’t use any techniks, though if that is true about the damage numerology can do then maybe I should. I can’t wait until I get telekinesis though, it should be incredibly useful.

Explanation of Numerology (I have the guide by piggyback, it has detailed info :p):

It’s quite simple really, the damage doubles after the first succesful hit, starting at 1 damage at the first hit. Meaning that at the 17th hit, you’d be doing 65.536 damage precisely. Damage is not reduced by Safety Augment or defence. As far as I know, this is the only normal Technick or attack for that matter that can break the damage limit (not counting Quickenings, or Esper Technicks).

There’s a catch however.

Numerology has an intial 85% chance to hit. Here’s a rundown:

First hit: 85%, 1 damage
Second hit: 85%, 2 damage
Third hit: 84%, 4 damage
Fourth hit: 83%, 8 damage
Fifth hit: 81%, 16 damage
Sixth hit: 79%, 32 damage
Seventh hit: 76%, 64 damage
Eighth hit: 73%, 128 damage
Ninth hit: 69%, 256 damage
Tenth hit: 65%, 512 damage
Eleventh hit: 60%, 1024 damage
Twelfth hit: 55%, 2048 damage
Thirteenth hit: 49%, 4096 damage
Fourteenth hit: 43%, 8192 damage
Fifteenth hit: 36%, 16384 damage
Sixteenth hit: 29% 32768 damage
Seventeeth hit: 21% 65536 damage
Eighteenth hit: always misses.

Hope this helps.

Does it carry from battle to battle or does the count reset each time you encounter a new enemy?

Does it carry from battle to battle or does the count reset each time you encounter a new enemy?

I think, although I’m not sure, that it resets whenever you move from one screen to the next. It will carry between enemies in the same area, as long as you don’t use another command apart from Numerology.

However, it usually misses at around hit 9 or 10 whenever I use it so it’s basically useless.

As far as I know, it resets the moment it misses or stops.

It seems to me like it’s not worth it to use at all. By the thirteenth use you have less then a fifty percent chance of getting it off and if you don’t you waste lots of time that could be used for physical attacks which will probably be more damage in total after thirteen attacks then numerolgy is after fifteen.

Very few techniques are all that useful. Throughout the entire game I found that I only used Steal, Libra, 1000 Needles, Telekinesis, Shear and Expose with any degree of regularity. The rest of them are largely junk, unfortunately.

The only technicks I used were Libra, Steal, and Telekinesis. Never used 1000 needles, and if I did use Shear or Expose, it was like once. Others are basically junk.

I thought 1000 Needles could be really useful in some boss battles, as it always dealt 1,000 damage regardless of defence. Most late bosses tended to get insane defence bonuses once they got towards the last 10% of their HP, so this was a good way of bypassing that disadvantage.

Yeah, the guaranteed 1000 damage is pretty useful. The nice thing about Shear and Expose is that they stack, so you can keep using them over and over until the enemy has no defense or resistance left… provided they’re vulnerable to those moves. Really came in handy during Fafnir and the Behemoth King. Telekinesis is a mixed bag. I found that the damage was pretty erratic, so I would usually opt for the appropriate elemental spell or cast Shock or Death on flying enemies.

I think you do more damage by just attacking than by using numerology

The problem I had with 1000 Needles was that it wasn’t a guaranteed 1,000 damage — it seemed to miss a lot.

mm-hmmm Soul-eater works wonders though. Where do you get the Foe:HP less then or equal to 20% Gambit, I’ve been searching for ages that little jewel makes poaching a breeze.

Its not called foe: hp less then or equal 20%, its called foe: hp equal critical