Sazh is the second character you’re introduced to at the beginning of the game and he joins Lightning early on in her attempt to prevent the Purge. He also ends up paired with Vanille during many chapters of the game.

You quickly learn as the story progresses that Sazh isn’t just some random tagalong that happened to wind up tied-at-the-hip to Lightning. He and his whole family’s story is intertwined with those of the other party members that join your crew. He harnesses two pistols as his weapons and has a neat little Chicobo that accompanies him throughout the game.

It could be argued that his story and character arc are one of the more complete ones in the game and many players opt to include him as a mainstay in their party.

Strengths and Roles

Sazh is a very well rounded character and, even though he won’t typically be serving as your party’s main Commando or Sentinel, he has very high HP compared to most of the other characters in the game. His biggest drawback though are the incredibly slow animations that take place when he decides to get creative in the way he fires shots from his pistols. That ‘behind the back’ shot might look cool, but it takes a very long time relatively speaking!

He makes for a strong Ravager, a strong Commando (though not by any means the strongest), and one of the best Synergists in the game, especially early on. It could be argued that other characters do a better job than Sazh does, even in his strongest roles, but your party wouldn’t be that much worse off if he finds himself with a permanent spot.

Character Stats

The table below outlines the maximum level for Sazh’s stats for each chapter of the game. A comparison of these stats to the other characters in the game can be found in the “Best Party” section using the link above.

	HP	Strength	Magic
Chapter 1	220	27	30
Chapter 2 (Pulse Vestige)	230	42	45
Chapter 4 (Vile Peaks)	416	62	59
Chapter 6 (Sunleth Waterscape)	550	98	95
Chapter 7 (Palumpolum)	739	130	127
Chapter 9 (Palamecia)	993	169	167
Chapter 10 (Fifth Ark)	1,335	219	214
Chapter 11 (Archylte Steppe)	1,730	278	269
Chapter 12 (Eden)	4,342	729	680
Chapter 13 (Orphan)	5,636	962	892
Maxed	8,113	1,354	1,245

Weapons

Sazh uses two pistols as his primary weapons. Use the link below for a full list of his weapons or use the link below that for more information about his best weapons.

Unique Abilities

Each character’s “unique ability” is also sometimes referred to as their “Full ATB” ability because it requires all six ATB gauge segments to be filled in order to use it in battle.

Each character will gain access to different abilities and spells as they progress through their crystariums, but each character has one “ultimate ability” which serves as their unique ability. Three characters can access and learn their ultimate ability in their Ravager crystarium with Sazh being one of them (Lightning and Hope being the other two).

Sazh’s unique ability is called Cold Blood and, like both Lightning and Hope’s unique ability, using it on an enemy will quickly boost the Chain Bonus on a Staggered enemy allowing the party to deal massive amounts of damage.