Equipment - what are they and how can they be obtained?
In most RPGs, you have the possibility to manage your characters' equipment: in FF XII, that term encompasses weapons, shields and armor and accessories. As the story progresses, you will come across more efficient pieces of gear - either in shops, as treasures, from enemies you fight, as reward for sidequests or as a result of selling specific loots at te Bazaar - that you may want to equip on your characters to increase their attack power or to protect them better. To do so, you'll not only need the piece of equipment itself but also to have activated the corresponding license on a given character's board
The number of items any character can equip at one given time is one weapon (or one weapon and ammunitions or one weapon (if one-handed) and shield), one piece of headgear, one piece of (body) armor and one accessory. You'll find below some additional informations on each type as well as links to comprehensive equipement lists
Weapons
You'll need weapons (as well as magicks) in order to defeat the enemies you'll meet during your quest: note that you can, in theory, fight empty-handed but that would result in your characters dealing far less damages that way, so it's pretty unlikely you'll choose to do so (there is, however, at least one fight during the course of the main story that you'll have to fight weaponless). FF XII proposes a great diversity of weapons which fall in either one of two categories, one-handed and two-handed weapons. This distinction is important as one-handed weapons allow you to also wield a shield. Another specificity you'll want to take in account is whether the weapon is short or long range: long range weapons are the only way to hit flying enemies (apart from the Telekinesis technic, but it doesn't become available until very late into the game); they can also play a great role in your strategy, in particular when fighting some of the bosses or the tougher ennemis you'll encounter during sidequests
Weapons lists
complete swords (one-handed) list - complete
complete daggers list - complete
complete axes and hammers list - complete
complete maces list - complete
complete measures list - complete
complete great swords list - complete
complete katana list - complete
complete ninja swords list - complete
complete spears list - complete
complete poles list - complete
complete rods list - complete
complete staves list - complete
complete bows (and arrows) list - complete
complete crossbows (and bolts) list - complete
complete guns (and bullets) list - complete
complete hand-bombs (and bombs) list - complete
Armor and Shields
Armor and shields are the pieces of equipment that you'll need to, er, protect yourself from enemy attacks (duh!) either disminishing the damages inflicted (armor) or increasing your chances of deflecting physical attacks alltogether (shields). Most of the items falling into that categories also offer additional bonuses, either by increasing other stats than your defense and magick resistence, or by offering other types of specific advantages - refer to the lists for more details. Those additional benefits also depends on the category of armor the piece your equip belong to. Indeed, armor is subdivided into three categories, each proposing body armor and corresponding headgear: Light Armor, which generally offers HP increase, Heavy Armor which is, with its Strength and greater physical defense, better suited for physical fighters, and Mystic Armor, which offers bonuses in terms of Magick, and is therefore best suited for magicians and potencially those who use weapons factoring in Magick for their attack power
Armors and Shields lists
complete light armor list - complete
complete heavy armor list - complete
complete mystic armor list - complete
complete shields list - complete
Accessories
There are many different Accessories in the game, each offering a very specific bonus to the character that wears it; a few offer also an increase in stats on top of the regular bonus; in particular accessories can offer complete protection (or almost) from a particular status, which may actuall end up tip the battle in your favor
complete accessories list
