Ultimecia

Marksman

This powerful sorceress can enhance her magical prowess every time she lands a blow on her opponents. To add to the carnage, she can use Maelstrom to bury her foes in an arcane barrage from any range.

Original Appearance: FINAL FANTASY VIII

Year: 1999

Role: Ultimecia’s ambition is one against fate. Her ultimate desire is to reshape the universe—one created in her image—and she will go to unimagined lengths to accomplish this task.

Other Noteworthy Appearances: DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY (2009), DISSIDIA 012 FINAL FANTASY (2011), Theatrhythm FINAL FANTASY Curtain Call (2014)

Arsenal

Bravery Attacks

HP Attacks

EX Skill

Maleficium Mechanics

Ultimecia’s Maleficium buffs make her a snowball-centric character who encourages an aggressive marksman playstyle, rewarding you with increased damage and range on most attacks. The following is an under-the-hood look at how her Maleficium “heat” gauge works.

There’s a hidden Maleficium “heat” gauge that determines when your Maleficium buff is applied (and is an entirely separate entity from the buff displayed in your status effects).

Maleficium heat gauge is accrued by successfully dealing any kind of damage (see attack tables for precise values).

This hidden threshold value is set at 1800. Breaking this threshold activates Maleficium (or Maleficium II if you have Maleficium active) and resets the heat gauge back to 0/1800.

Maleficium II is downgraded to Maleficium when its 25 seconds are up and you don’t successfully break the heat gauge threshold.

Breaking the threshold again while you’re under the effect of Maleficium II refreshes its timer, resetting it back to a full 25 seconds.

Maleficium gauge constantly deteriorates over time, so in order to stay “hot,” you’re encouraged to keep up your barrage of attacks.

Bravery Attack Breakdown

Relentless Blades

Ultimecia uses her sorcery to effortlessly fire a bevy of crimson blades from her palm that tracks and stuns enemies in place as they’re riddled by the magical swords.

Relentless Blades, along with Arrows of Rapture, are Ultimecia’s best tools for setting up team combos (if not her best attacks overall). Not only do the swords have a slight tracking property, but you can release up to fifteen of them by holding . As the swords collapse and begin hitting your target, the target is locked in place for a relatively long time by the hit reel, allowing teammates to capitalize with their own Bravery and HP Attack follow-ups.

Naturally, the threat of your rapid-fire swords makes you the top priority for the enemy team, so much of your gameplay revolves around getting into safe positions to deliver your barrage of attacks.

The damage and maximum range of this attack increase when you gain the Maleficium buff, which rewards your successful strikes with an even more effective support utility.

Arcing Axes

Ultimecia callously flings several axes at her target, dealing great damage in a small area and knocking enemies in its blast a short distance.

These axe flings have an unpredictable flight pattern, but each successful hit deals an incredible amount of damage while boosting your Maleficium gauge by an inordinate amount compared to her Relentless Blades and Arrows of Rapture attacks. So while they’re difficult to hit with, the payoff scales with the risk.

Arcing Axes is generally best saved for following up a teammate’s opening rather than as an opener itself. Since its trajectory can be wild (even potentially missing against stationary targets), it’s unreliable in many situations. However, its explosion on impact can potentially hit multiple foes near your target.

While under the Maleficium buff, the explosive effect increases, impacting a larger area.

Final Sentence

Ultimecia summons a portal directly above her foe, unleashing a devastating rain of lances.

Final Sentence is a projectile attack with a bit of a twist. The portal you summon has a slight tracking property after its cast and moves toward the targeted enemy as the lances fall from it.

Like Arcing Axes, Final Sentence deals massive damage and rewards a great amount of Maleficium gauge on hit. However, like Arcing Axes, it’s not an attack you can use on the fly in most standoff situations. Your best chance of landing this attack is against unsuspecting foes who are preoccupied fighting your allies, though this opportunity may be rare—as the main damage-dealing threat on the team, you’re likely to be where all the action is.

If you can pull it off, especially against clumped-up enemies or an opponent pinned to the wall, this rain cloud of lances can hit multiple times, with each hit dealing over 300 Bravery damage.

Charging this attack increases its maximum range. The longer you charge it, the farther out you can summon the portal.

Arrows of Rapture

From the air, Ultimecia unleashes an onslaught of piercing daggers at her foe.

Arrows of Rapture is much like her grounded neutral  attack, dealing similar damage and providing the same kind of lockdown utility. Hold  to fire additional projectiles, up to a maximum of 26.

Spears of Temperance

Ultimecia gathers up a powerful force, then swiftly launches a giant spear that impales her foe at mid-range.

Spears of Temperance has the shortest range out of all of Ultimecia’s Bravery Attacks. But what it lacks in reach, it makes up for with travel speed. Its main strength is as a defensive tool to quickly punish enemies approaching you head-on. Since most of your moves have relatively long start-up times, your opponents are likely to advance on you directly if you give them the opportunity.

Spears of Temperance can be used as a preemptive counterattack. You can essentially bait enemies into an impaling lance. For example, if you notice one of your opponents targeting you and are about to make a direct engagement, charge up your +  and then release as soon as they’re in range. Because the spear travels so quickly upon release, it’s extremely difficult to guard and sidestep on reaction.

Capering Axes

While airborne, Ultimecia hurls several axes at her target that travel slowly at first, then increasingly accelerate in pursuit of the enemy.

Capering Axes may look like Arcing Axes but is significantly different, with unique acceleration and trajectory properties. The axes hover briefly in front of you, then they find and fly toward your target, increasing in speed over time.

Its speed and tracking effect separate it from Arrows of Rapture in a subtle way; while both are tracking projectiles, Capering Axes’ slower travel speed gives it a better turn rate against enemies dashing laterally. Additionally, there’s a slight knockback effect on hit that creates space between you and your aggressor.

Arrows of Rapture is generally preferred as a lockdown tool for team combos, thanks to its rapid multi-hit property, but Capering Axes can also be used to set up combos, just not as easily.

Unerring Pikes

Ultimecia releases a shockwave of successive rising spikes that chases and impales her foe, whether they’re grounded or airborne.

Ultimecia suffers from a lack of mobility options, but that doesn’t mean she’s defenseless. Unerring Pikes is a strong defensive tool, thanks to its speed, knockback effect, and, most of all, its incredible vertical-tracking property. Aggressors approaching from the air have to respect your Unerring Pikes, as it’s difficult to sidestep on reaction once it’s released.

Its drawback is that it can only be performed while grounded, since Ultimecia has a separate airborne dashing  attack—one that fulfills an entirely contrasting purpose—so be mindful of your current air and ground positioning while dashing before you commit to a dashing attack.

Protean Swords

Ultimecia summons a crown of swords in front of herself that levitates before her. After several seconds, the phalanx of blades is deployed, shredding foes in its path.

Protean Swords is a particularly unconventional Bravery Attack. Its start time is extremely long, leaving you vulnerable to attack while summoning the blades. Although the damage, speed, range, and trajectory of the deployed swords aren’t incredibly impressive compared to some of Ultimecia’s other attacks, Protean Swords does serve a unique purpose in your arsenal as a trap-type attack.

Once you’ve created the formation of swords, they fire regardless of whether you’re hit afterward. Essentially, you can use Protean Swords to preemptively set up a retaliation attack against a target. For instance, if you’re dashing away from an enemy who’s dashing after you, you can deploy Protean Swords, then continue dashing away from the enemy. If they choose to continue their pursuit, the formation of swords (that’s now behind you and the enemy), will eventually fire at the enemy’s rear, punishing their pursuit.

HP Attack Breakdown

Great Attractor

Ultimecia sends out an enormous planetesimal that pursues her target for a short time before emanating a stationary gravity field, pulling in nearby enemies before exploding. If the initial sphere makes contact with an enemy before its gravity-pull phase, it explodes immediately.

Great Attractor is a slow projectile with a slight tracking effect. Its travel speed makes it relatively easy to avoid, but also makes it an excellent zoning tool for clearing space in front of you, due to the large area of effect of its gravitic pull.

Use Great Attractor for its crowd-control effect and to punish opponents thronging an area. Otherwise, one of the other HP Attacks may be preferable in terms of effectiveness in landing HP damage.

Shockwave Pulsar

Ultimecia summons a black hole directly above herself, punishing her aggressors by forcing them into a radiant burst of energy that hurls them away to mid-range.

This is one of Ultimecia’s strongest defensive utilities, thanks to its large area of effect and persistent hit effect, as it can damage enemies for a short period after the burst.

Since you’re likely to be the main target of the opposing team’s assassin, Shockwave Pulsar is highly recommended if you need another ability to defend yourself with.

Hell’s Judgement

Ultimecia opens a massive portal beneath her foe that fires a blinding beam of light toward the sky, devastating all enemies within its radius.

Hell’s Judgement is a long-range attack with an incredibly large area-of-effect range. It’s best used on groups of enemies or as a follow-up attack to openings provided by your team.

Its slow start-up and obvious telegraph generally make it difficult to land on mobile opponents Please replace with “since they’ll likely avoid it if they’re already on the move. Its main advantages are in its range and size, but it can be difficult to use while under attack.

Apocalypse

Ultimecia uses light magic to send forth successive pillars of radiating light that chase her target, launching them into the sky and out of commission.

This attack boasts an impressive vertical-tracking property, excellent for dealing with enemies from both air-to-ground and ground-to-air situations. It makes for a superb complementary offensive and defensive tool and is recommended for a balanced playstyle. While Shockwave Pulsar is purely defense-oriented, Apocalypse is a bit more flexible with its range and can be used offensively to deal HP damage to foes at mid-range.

EX Skill Breakdown

Maelstrom

Ultimecia casts a gravity-based sphere at her foe. As it collides with the enemy, it manifests into an enveloping black hole that pulls in and swallows nearby opponents for a short time before detonating.

Maelstrom is a long-range projectile that, when it reaches its range limit or connects with its target, turns into a multi-hit area-of-effect attack with draw-in properties.

It’s by far Ultimecia’s strongest source of Bravery damage in terms of range, damage, and size. It also grants a full Maleficium level if all of its hits connect. However, it’s on a 60-second recast timer, so it’s best used when you can make it count—ideally when multiple opponents are grouped up or when they’re occupied fighting your teammates. While it’s similar to Great Attractor, Maelstrom is notably faster and sports a farther maximum range before its black hole effect.

Battle Plan

While your primary role as Ultimecia is a straightforward one of dealing as much damage as possible from range, learning how to create space between you and your foes—along with understanding which attacks to use defensively—is crucial to your effectiveness, as Ultimecia has limited mobility options. Thus, she makes for an excellent character to pick for learning how to evade aggressors, since you’re forced to use only the basic sidestepping and dashing techniques.

Ultimecia’s greatest assets to the team are her grounded and airborne neutral  attacks (Relentless Blades and Arrows of Rapture). These rapid-fire sword projectiles are premier attacks for locking down enemies and opening team combo opportunities, so much of your game plan should revolve around setting up teammates with these two heavy hit-stun attacks.

However, your opponents won’t let you freely shoot them from range, so a large portion of your battle plan depends on intelligent movement and defensive play. Work with your teammates; stay near your vanguard as often as you can, since they’re your main line of defense, and at the same time sneak in ranged shots to help your assassin open up enemy defenses.

If you’re forced to fend for yourself, Ultimecia has a few defensive attacks available that are designed to deflect aggression. Grounded dashing  (Unerring Pikes), Apocalypse, and Shockwave Pulsar all serve well in this regard. Sending out a direct pillar attack from a grounded dash is a great way to keep aggressors in check, forcing them to either sidestep or take damage if they approach you head-on. For aerial defense, use airborne +  to take a quick stab at oncoming foes at close range, or one of your defense-oriented HP Attacks if you have one equipped. As always, remember to evasion cancel all of your projectile attempts to minimize your vulnerability.

Although Relentless Blades and Arrows of Rapture are your bread-and-butter attacks, Ultimecia’s grounded +  (Arcing Axes) can be used in scenarios in which you can capitalize on a teammate’s opening. If you have sufficient breathing room, go for a grounded +  (Final Sentence) to devastate enemies locked down by your teammates. These power attacks deal massive Bravery damage while dramatically boosting your Maleficium gauge, especially if you can score multiple blows with one cast (in specific corner scenarios, Final Sentence can ramp up an entire Maleficium level instantly).

Ultimecia is the ultimate mortar cannon with a snowball-centric mechanic. As a pure offense-oriented marksman, she provides immense firepower and utility to the squad with her sword and pillar projectiles. As she successfully scores hits on enemies, her firepower is enhanced, fostering a playstyle that rewards ranged aggression and accuracy.

Gallery

Appearance

Weapons