How Garment Grids Work

A Garment Grid holds the Dresspheres that a character can change into during battle. Each character equips a single Garment Grid and they can only be swapped outside of a battle. Check out the Garment Grids section for a list of every Garment Grid in the game, including its gates, abilities, and where to find it.

Use the button to pull up a character’s Garment Grid and change to a new Dressphere during a battle.

Nodes and Spherechange

Every Garment Grid is made up of nodes, and each node holds one Dressphere. Garment Grids differ in how many nodes they have and how the nodes are connected. At the start of a battle, each character begins on the node that holds the Dressphere they’re currently wearing.

Changing Dresspheres during a battle is called a “spherechange.” The character moves from their current node to another node and takes on the new Dressphere, along with its abilities and stats. A spherechange takes almost no time, so the character’s turn will come up again right away.

Every spherechange plays a transformation animation. You can set it to “Normal,” “Short,” or “Off” under the “Spherechange” option in the Config menu.

Gates

Gates are the colorful icons that sit on the lines between nodes, and there are four colors: red, green, yellow, or blue. When a spherechange takes a character through a gate, that gate’s effects are activated for the rest of the battle. Gates reset when the battle ends, so you have to pass through them again in the next fight to trigger their effects.

Each Garment Grid ties its abilities to gate colors. An ability with one color next to it switches on once you pass through a gate of that color. An ability with several colors next to it needs a gate of every one of those colors. Here’s how that looks for the Highroad Winds Garment Grid:

• First Strike is its “Equip Ability,” so it works as soon as the Garment Grid is equipped (see below).
• Passing through a green gate grants Slowproof, a red gate grants Stopproof, and a yellow gate lets the character cast Haste.
• SOS Haste only switches on once the character has passed through a gate of all four colors in the same battle.

Equip Abilities

Many Garment Grids also grant an Equip Ability just for being equipped. It needs no spherechange and no gates, and it works from the first turn of every battle, even if the character never leaves their starting node.

Special Dresspheres

Each character has one Special Dressphere: Floral Fallal for Yuna, Machina Maw for Rikku, and Full Throttle for Paine. Special Dresspheres can’t be placed on a Garment Grid, so you can’t simply spherechange into one. During a battle, change into every Dressphere on the character’s equipped Garment Grid once. After you’ve activated them all, open the Garment Grid one more time and press and then to transform.

The fewer nodes a Garment Grid has, the sooner its Special Dressphere is ready. The Unerring Path Garment Grid has only two nodes, so a single spherechange is enough. You receive it alongside your first Special Dressphere.

Creature Abilities

In the International and HD Remaster versions of the game, you can also equip a Garment Grid on a creature from the Creature Creator. Creatures don’t use gates; instead, each Garment Grid gives a creature the Creature Ability listed in its entry. For example, the Highroad Winds Garment Grid gives a creature the First Strike effect and lets it use Hayate.