Feral Skills Guide by Shoya

'''This is a user guide, but I welcome changes directly to this article by anyone who is kind enough to make additions or corrections. If your contribution require a major rewrite of some part, perhaps you could put your ideas in the Discussion, to make it easier for me to keep track of what's going on ^^ Thank you!'''

This guide will attempt to list all known Feral Skills, plus some limited info about how these skills work. It will not talk about where to find the skills.

While I collected all the initial info for this Guide myself (including the full skill list), to get any further, I rely on reader contributions, and on posts on various forums. My thanks go to everyone who is sharing their knowledge on the web, and especially to the people who made corrections and additions to this guide.

Soul Plate
A Soul Plate can be used to create a new monster, or to add a skill to an existing monster (but not both!). Some monster families (e.g., Cerberus Family) are not allowed in the Pit, at least for the time being. Therefore, soul plates that captured them can only be used to add skills to the existing monsters.

If you look at a Soul Plate in your inventory, you will see the following data:

 (FP:8)[TinyMandragora]

You can get slightly more detailed description by trading the plate to an Official Screener NPC (e.g., Idjham at the Annihilation battle cage counter):

Using this soul plate, I can forge a soul reflector containing a level 1 mandragora-type monster, or add the following skill to an existing reflector:

~ Beast Killer (lv. 1) ~ Adds the effect of Beast Killer FP requirement: 8

If you want to create a monster, you trade an Official Screener the Soul Plate and one ice crystal. If you want to add the skill, you trade him the Soul Plate and the Soul Reflector containing the monster to be trained. In either case, your account will be charged 1 jetton, and the soul plate will disappear.

The name TinyMandragora in this soul plate tells you who it was obtained from -- very useful if you see a soul plate in the bazaar, and want to hunt for it yourself instead of buying it. The names of monsters in soul plates are limited to 14 characters; any further characters are simply cut off.

Each Soul Plate has a level associated with it, which determines the initial level of the monster or skill you create from the plate. The soul plate level is equal to the captured monster level divided by 10 and rounded down. You can see the precise level by trading the soul plate to an Official Screener, but you can make a good guess by examining the monster from which the soul plate was captured.

Feral Skills
Each feral skill is completely described by:
 * name
 * cost in feral points
 * level (if any)

All of this information is given by the Official Screener NPC if you trade him the soul plate you are planning to use to add that skill. All of that except the level is also written on the soul plate itself (and the level can be estimated from the monster mentioned on the plate).

Feral skill cost is expresssed in feral points (FP). The cost can be: 5, 8, 12, 17, 23, 30, 38, 47, 58, 70, and it is always the same for the given skill.

Each monster has a maximum FP capacity. Once you exceed that capacity, you can't teach your monster any more skills unless you remove one of the existing skills.

Since the FP cost of a skill is used by the Square Enix developers to balance the battlefield, the higher-cost skills tend to be more powerful.

Most feral skills have a level attribute. As your monster fights, both the monster's own level and the level of the equipped skills increase. The only skills that do NOT have a level are:


 * skills that have a specific number in the description (like +25, +25%, etc.)
 * skills in the Jobs category
 * XXX Scrolls and Ninja Tool Supply skills

The skill level increase by 1 every single fight, regardless of winning/losing. The skill cap is not currently known. A lv. 24 monster is known to have a lv. 40 skill right now.

If you remove a skill, and later re-equip it, your skill level will be determined by the new soul plate. Therefore, removing a high-level skill is quite painful. On the other hand, a low-level or a level-free skill can be removed without much thought, as it can be easily replaced (all possible soul plates are available at a very modest cost from bazaars, and are relatively easy to capture in the wild).

Note that there is one group of skills, Resist , which only occur as innate skills. These skills are never encountered on soul plates, and so cannot be equipped. Therefore, they don't have an FP cost (since they always come for free).

Skill Prerequisites
The only restriction on equipping the skills is that some skills are incompatible with certain types of monsters (e.g., Main Job: MNK is incompatible with Manticore-type monster).

There is no level restrictions on skills. That is, a skill of the highest level found on a soul plate (lv. 9) can be equipped to a lv. 1 monster, and it will have full effect.

Of course, some skills may be equippable, but have no effect.

The Job Trait: XXX skill is useless unless the monster already has the corresponding job as main or support job.

Note that the following skills also enable the trait, not only enhance it :


 * Double Attack Rate +15% enables double attack trait
 * Triple Attack Rate +15% enables triple attack trait
 * Additional  Damage +25 enables additional damage trait
 * Auto Refresh +5 enables auto refresh trait
 * Auto Regen +5 enables auto regen trait
 * Auto Regain +3 enables auto regain trait
 * Subtle Blow Rate +15% enables subtle blow trait

Colosseum Monsters
To describe a colosseum monster, you need to know the following attributes:
 * Family
 * level
 * main and support job (if any)
 * FP capacity
 * innate feral skills
 * equipped feral skills
 * discipline level
 * temperament

All these attributes will be given by the Official Screener NPC if you trade him the Soul Reflector containing the monster. However, most of them are not known prior to creating the monster. If you trade the Official Screener NPC the soul plate you are planning to use to create the monster, he will only tell you the family and the level of the future monster. The remaining attributes appear to be random, although they may have some relationship to the level or other characteristic of the captured monster.

The FP capacity of two same-type same-level monsters is usually the same; but variations by 2-3 FP have been observed. A monster family that normally has very large FP capacity is likely to be relatively weak in other respects, since the FP capacity is used by Square Enix to balance the battlefield. However, the individual monster that happens to have more FP than other monsters of its type clearly has an advantage.

A monster's FP capacity at birth ranges from ~30 FP to ~90 FP, and increases as your monster levels. The rate of FP increase varies; so far the following have been reported (for now I assume it only depends on monster family, not the individual monster captured):
 * 1 FP every 2 levels (always at even levels): manticore-type
 * 1 FP every level: kraken-type

The main and support jobs at birth are usually determined by the monster type; but again, variations are seen (e.g., Cactuar has been reported as either WAR or MNK main). The support job is often absent at birth.

The monster may have up to 2 innate feral skills. They cannot be removed, but they don't take up the FP capacity either, so they provide potentially enormous advantage. The innate skill will almost always be the skill mentioned on the soul plate, with these exceptions:
 * Resist  group of skills that only exist as innate skills, and never show up on soul plates
 * if a monster has 2 innate skills, of course 1 of them is not mentioned on the soul plate ^^
 * any other exceptions that may be unknown to me

I don't know at present whether the discipline and temperament depend on the family or level of the captured monster, or whether they are completely random.

Once you decide which innate skills and jobs your perfect monster should have, you may have to trade dozens of identical soul plates before you get the perfect outcome.

It is also possible that some additional monster attributes not disclosed by the Official Screener NPC. For example, the color of the monster in the Cage keeps the color of the captured monster. Whether this has any impact on the fight, or is done purely for aesthetic reasons, is unknown.

Monster Jobs
A monster may be born without a job, with a main job only, or with both main and support jobs. A monster's main and support job may be changed using feral skills, but only certain jobs are compatible with each family.

{|

Note that COR, PUP, BLU are not available as equippable skills. Therefore, the only monsters with ToAU jobs are those who got these jobs at birth.

It is not clear at this time what exact role the job has. One thing seems certain: passive job traits are not enabled by default; they need to be enabled with the Job Trait: XXX feral skill. It is possible, but far from certain, that the job also affect:
 * the monster's stats (STR, attack, accuracy, elemental magic skill, and so on)
 * the monster's skill in the weapon it is assumed to use in melee
 * the monster's ability to cast spells, use ninjutsu, summon pets, etc

Jobs

 * Main Job:  (8 FP)
 * Support Job:  (8 FP)
 * Job Trait:  (12 FP)
 *  can be any existing job, except COR, PUP, BLU. Therefore the only way for a monster to have a ToAU job is to get it at birth.

Stats

 *  +25 (17 FP)
 *  Bonus (23 FP)
 *  can be: STR, VIT, AGI, DEX, INT, MND, CHR)


 *  +15% (23 FP)
 *  Bonus (30 FP)
 *  can be: Attack, Magic Attack, Accuracy, Magic Accuracy, Defense, Magic Defense, Evasion


 *  Attack +15% (12 FP)
 * <Elemental Attack Bonus (17 FP)
 * <Elemental> can be: Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, Ice, Thunder, Darkness, Light, Neutral
 * Neutral Attack is an attack not affiliated with any element.

Attack Traits

 * Subtle Blow Rate +15% (23 FP)
 * Subtle Blow (30 FP)
 * Critical Hit Rate +10% (30 FP)
 * Critical Hit Rate Bonus (38 FP)
 * Double Attack Rate +15% (30 FP)
 * Double Attack (38 FP)
 * Triple Attack Rate +15% (47 FP)
 * Triple Attack (58 FP)
 * Attack Speed +50 (58 FP)
 * Attack Speed Bonus (70 FP)

En- Spells

 * Additional <Elemental> Damage +25 (30 FP)
 * Additional <Elemental> Damage (47 FP)
 * <Elemental> can be Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, Ice, Thunder, Darkness, Light

HP

 * HP Max +50 (8 FP)
 * HP Max Bonus (12 FP)
 * HP Max +15% (23 FP)
 * HP Max Rate Bonus (30 FP)
 * Auto Regen +5 (38 FP)
 * Auto Regen (47 FP)

MP

 * MP Max +50 (5 FP)
 * MP Max Bonus (8 FP)
 * MP Max +15% (12 FP)
 * MP Max Rate Bonus (17 FP)
 * Auto Refresh +5 (30 FP)
 * Auto Refresh (38 FP)

TP

 * Store TP (47 FP)
 * Store TP +10% (38 FP)
 * Auto Regain +3 (58 FP)
 * Auto Regain (70 FP)

Casting

 * Interruption Rate -25% (23 FP)
 * Interruption Rate Bonus (30 FP)
 * Magic Casting Speed +15% (23 FP)
 * Magic Casting Speed Bonus (30 FP)
 * <Type> Scrolls (17 FP)
 * <Type> can be Bard, Black Magic, Ninjutsu, White Magic, Dark Magic
 * Ninja Tool Supply (8 FP)
 * The Ninja Tool Supply feral skill is not required to use ninjutsu. The exact function of this skill is unknown (maybe increase the number of times ninjutsu can be cast in battle? })

Magic Skill Bonus

 * <Skill> +10% (12 FP)
 * <Skill> Bonus (17 FP)
 * <Skill> can be Dark Magic, Divine Magic, Elemental Magic, Enfeebling Magic, Enhancing Magic, Healing Magic, Ninjutsu

Status Attacks

 * Poisoning Attack (17 FP)
 * Aspir Attack (23 FP)
 * Bio Attack (23 FP)
 * Blinding Attack (23 FP)
 * Binding Attack (23 FP)
 * Dia Attack (23 FP)
 * Gravity Attack (23 FP)
 * Paralyzing Attack (23 FP)
 * Sleep Attack (23 FP)
 * Slowing Attack (23 FP)
 * Curse Attack (30 FP)
 * Silencing Attack (30 FP)
 * Stun Attack (38 FP)
 * Viral Attack (38 FP)
 * Draining Attack (38 FP)
 * Amnesia Attack (47 FP)
 * TP Drain Attack (58 FP)
 * Terrorizing Attack (70 FP)
 * Official description: "Adds <...> effect to regular attacks. Cannot be combined with any other elemental damage additions." This description is confusing, since the status attacks in this list do not really add elemental damage. But it seems all attacks that have any additional effect or damage do not stack with each other; that would include all status attacks and all en-spells.

Instant Buffs

 * Instant Bar<Element> (8 FP)
 * <Element> can be Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, Ice, Thunder
 * Instant Bar<Status> (8 FP)
 * <Status> can be Blind, Paralyze, Petrify, Poison, Sleep, Stone, Virus
 * Instant Blink (12 FP)
 * Instant Aquaveil (12 FP)
 * Instant Stoneskin (17 FP)
 * Instant Protect (17 FP)
 * Instant Shell (17 FP)
 * Instant <Type> Spikes (30 FP)
 * <Type> can be Blaze, Ice, Shock, Dread
 * Instant Haste (38 FP)

Instant buffs are already active at the beginning of the battle, so they don't cause any delay during the battle. While the feral buffs are of course similar to the same-name regular buffs, their potency may be quite different, since they depend on the feral skill level in addition or instead of the usual factors. E.g., the feral Barstone is not determined purely by the monster's enhancing magic skill (and in fact, may not be affected by it at all).

Resists

 * <Element> +2 / <Opposite Element> -2 (5 FP)
 * <Element> Bonus / <Opposite Element> Penalty (8 FP)
 * <Element> Resistance +2 (8 FP)
 * <Element> Resistance Bonus (12 FP)
 * <Element> can be Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, Ice, Thunder, Darkness, Light
 * <Opposite Element> is the element strong to <Element> (e.g., if <Element> is Water, then <Opposite Element> is Thunder)
 * <Type> Damage Resistance +15% (30 FP)
 * <Type> Damage Resistance Bonus (38 FP)
 * <Type> can be omitted or can be Magic, Breath; if omitted it means Physical
 * Resist <Status> (0 FP; these skills only come as innate skills, never as equippable skills)
 * <Status> can be Blind, Gravity, Paralysis, Petrify, Poison, Sleep, Slow, Virus
 * Official description: "Increases resistance to <...>."

Intimidation

 * <Type> Killer (8 FP)
 * <Type> can be Beast, Lizard, Vermin, Plantoid, Aquan, Amorph, Bird, Undead, Arcana, Dragon, Demon

Empty Killer skill seems to be missing, but this is irrelevant since Empty monsters are not currently allowed in the Pit.