Best Dresspheres

Objectively the best Dressphere in the game. In addition to providing access to some of the most powerful abilities, like Moogle Beam and Cactling Gun, it also provides access to abilities from other Dresspheres. The strongest benefit, though, is the massive stat boost that characters get when they wear it, which you can see on the “Equip” screen.

They can each learn the Ribbon ability as well, which makes them completely immune to status effects, and allows you to equip other characters in other roles with Ribbons so you can be selective.

You’d have to really look to find drawbacks, but if there were any, it would be that Rikku’s Mascot Dressphere is not as powerful as the other two, and they look kind of stupid when worn.

The strongest healer in the game, mostly because it’s capable of healing the entire party and dealing damage with a respectable attack when there’s no healing to be done. Mega-Potion is an incredible healing spell that heals all party members and only gets better after the Alchemist learns Items Lv. 2 and Chemist, and they pull it out of their Stash, so you don’t need to keep a high inventory of them on hand.

There aren’t many drawbacks, but one thing to be aware of is that you have to spend some time learning abilities to get full value out of an Alchemist. You can use “Mix” to combine a Potion and a Hi-Potion to get a Mega-Potion before the actual Mega-Potion ability is learned, but at the start, the casting time and effectiveness are somewhat stunted.

Some of the strongest attacks and strongest defense in the game. You would expect to see a job excel at one and suffer at the other, but the Dark Knight brings both. Its regular Attack deals heavy damage to enemies, but if there are multiple enemies on the field, it can make use of its Darkness ability, which deals heavy damage to all targets.

In addition to its attack power, it has high defense and can learn Poisonproof, Stoneproof, Confuseproof, Curseproof, and Deathproof, which make it even tankier.

Similar to the Alchemist, there aren’t many drawbacks, but if you had to reach for one, it would be that its most powerful attacks (Darkness and Charon) also deal damage to or KO the Dark Knight, and that its attacks are somewhat slow. That’s about it…

It’s ranked high for its damage prevention rather than the damage it deals. Its three attacks, Psychic Bomb, Maser Eye, and Brainstorm, are perfectly decent, as is its regular attack, but maybe not as strong as other Dresspheres on this list. Its defensive capabilities are where its biggest strengths lie, as it can become immune to magic or physical attacks briefly, and when it learns Excellence, it can become immune to both at the same time (pretty much invincible).

The biggest drawback of this Dressphere is that you focus more on defense than offense, making progression a bit more of a slog, but it works well alongside other Dresspheres that compensate for it.

The Gun Mage brings an interesting set of utility. Its ability to learn Blue Bullet abilities gives it a crazy good arsenal if you have them and get hit by the right abilities. It also has a wide variety of abilities that deal extra damage against certain enemy types. A few fights and enemy types make this come in handy (Elementals, high-armor targets, etc.).

That said, three weaknesses drop it a tier. Firstly, you have to know the enemy type to know which ability to use. Secondly, you have to have learned the proper abilities at the right time; otherwise, you may not have access to the proper enemy type. Third, you need to know which enemies give them Blue Bullet abilities. The Gun Mage is really good if you have a guide that identifies these benefits at the right time (which, thankfully, you do!)

Often overlooked, but because its Trigger Happy ability allows players to deal so much damage, it climbs higher than the other Dresspheres that the three characters start off in. Learning Trigger Happy Lv. 2 and Trigger Happy Lv. 3 extend its damage capability even further.

Its drawback is that it’s a bit of a one-trick pony. Sure, there are instances where other abilities come in handy, but its primary function is a damage dealer.

This is the first Dressphere ranked highly because of the utility it brings. Sure, using random luck-related abilities is fun in battle, and there’s nothing more satisfying than rolling a good Two Dice or Four Dice combo, but it’s the auto-abilities that you’ll come to rely on.

Double EXP provides one of the fastest and most efficient methods of building up experience and leveling up your characters. Thankfully, this Dressphere also deals reasonable damage. It’s a bit light in the armor department, though, and its damage is comparable but not better than alternatives; otherwise, it would rank higher.

A fairly strong physical attacker but built around being reactive. To be sure, Counterattack, Magic Counter, and Evade & Counter have effective uses in many battles, and with all three learned, it deals a good share of its damage on both its turn and the enemy’s turn, which is handy.

Its biggest drawback is hard to overlook. It has low Magic Defense, the worst of any Dressphere by a significant margin. There are enemies in the game where using a Berserker is not a good idea, which is why it doesn’t rank higher.

The ability to Steal from enemies does come in handy early in the game, and having a method of ensuring that your party gets the First Strike in any battle is useful, too, but otherwise, the benefits of using a Thief are limited. Its damage is close to, if not a little bit lower than, a Warrior, which you also gain access to right at the start of the game. Its unique two-strike attack can help some Cat Nip-related strategies, but that niche usefulness doesn’t push it higher in the rankings.

The Warrior is a half-decent Dressphere that just straight up gets outdone by the Dark Knight once you have access to it. The different “break” related abilities have some utility, but you don’t need to have a party member in their Dressphere to gain access to those abilities. Useful early in the game, but not a Dressphere you should rely on much beyond that.

It can do reasonable damage against enemies with elemental weaknesses, but that requires you to know what those weaknesses are in advance, or scanning to figure them out. The Black Mage is really inhibited, though, if the enemy they’re facing has no elemental weaknesses or absorbs some elements; a bit of a painful mistake to make if you end up healing the enemy instead of hurting it. With little in the way of armor and protection, and a mediocre (at best) spell toolkit, it’s hard to justify using it, especially with how many enemies are capable of draining MP in this game.

Its strength is that it hits about as hard as Dark Knight with almost none of the defense. Its Strength is the second highest of any Dressphere, and its Defense sits near the bottom, so it’s like taking a Dark Knight that left its armor at home.

Some of its abilities have niche uses in battle, but the drawbacks are all related to its ability to survive long enough to use them.

The Songstress deals no damage and provides no healing on its own, which is already a difficult place to start from. Its dances do have their moments, and buffs like Battle Cry and Cantus Firmus can help in a tough fight, but a character standing around (or dancing around, more like it) in this role too long is one less damage dealer or healer that you have to make up for.

You can swap a Songstress in, put up a buff, and swap back out, but that costs turns. It is an entertaining way to play rather than an efficient one.

There is nothing wrong with the White Mage Dressphere, and most players would call a dedicated healer essential. Early in the game, it is somewhat essential as well. The problem is that the Alchemist does the same job and brings far more utility with it, which is why the White Mage falls to this ranking.

It is limited to healing and buffs, so if nobody needs healing there is not much for it to do on its turn. Pray and Vigor at least cost no MP and recover HP steadily, and White Magic Lv. 2 speeds the rest up, but none of that closes the gap, but otherwise, the most efficient use of a White Mage would be for one character to swap in and out of this role. Hard to justify that when there are alternatives available.

The weaker of the two Dresspheres added in the International release, which is how they reached the HD Remaster. You get it very early, which is probably why its attacks don’t deal very much damage, as soon as you get out of the first couple of chapters of the game.

Each character gets her own pet: Yuna with Kogoro, Rikku with Ghiki, and Paine with Flurry, and each brings a different ability set. That variety is about the most interesting thing it has going for it, but none of the three versions of this Dressphere bring the damage or the utility of comparable options.