Overview
In Final Fantasy Zero, your characters will need to heal often. Most of the time, you will be healing hit points that have been lost in combat, but you may also be removing ailments, getting back up after a KO, or restoring magick points so that you can unleash more of your potent abilities.
Types of Healing
Recover
When you heal HP, it is called "recovery." Most (but not all) recovery is Holy-elemental. Potions recover your HP
Restore
When you heal MP it is called "retoration." Most (but not all) restoration is Cosmos-elemental. Ethers restore your MP
Remove
When you stop an ailment it is called "removal." Effects that have removal of one or more ailments are known by the "Purify" keyword. Most Medicines remove ailments.
Revive
When you undo a KO, it is called "reviving." Effects that revive a target are known by the "Life" keyword. Plumage items revive.
Drain
When you take HP or MP from an enemy, dealing damage and healing yourself, it is called "draining."
Methods of Healing
The Defend Action
If you take the Defend action in combat, you gain the following benefits:
- Recover HP equal to your Vitality score.
- Restore MP equal to your Spirit score.
- Gain SPD equal to your Agility score.
- Take half damage until your next turn and gain +2 Weapon Defense and +2 Magick Defense
Items
The following items can heal you (or your target).
- Potions recover your HP
- Ethers restore your MP
- Most Medicines remove ailments.
- Some Elixirs restore HP and MP simultaneously.
- Plumage items revive.
Abilities
There are many abilities — be they techniques, spells, or traits, that provide healing, usually in the form of direct HP or MP recovery, and occasionally with ailment recovery added on. The Devout job has the best of these powers, but most jobs have at least a small ability to heal.
Rest
After an encounter, you heal all HP and MP to full, as long as no other encounters immediately begin. This is called taking a "short rest." At Safe Crystals, you can also automatically revive KO'd party members, switch out party members, and perform other, more intensive party management. If your party is annihiliated, your will revive at your Safe Crystal, unless the crystal istelf is destroyed.
Zombie Status
A creature with the Zombie status reacts unusually to several healing effects:
- Any healing effect that has the Holy element actually damages the creature instead of healing it. The damage is equal to the healing the creature would have normally recieved. Correlated to this, any Life effect acts as Instant KO instead.
- Any damaging effect that has the Shadow element actually heals the creature instead of damaging it. The healing is equal to the damage the creature would have normally received. Correlated to this, any Instant KO effect instead recovers all of the zombie's HP.
- Any Drain effect is reversed on the creature. If the creature is the target of a drain effect, they are healed and the original user of the effect is damaged. If the creature uses a drain effect, they are damaged and their target is healed.
