Fish Fins are a drop from Fastitocalon-F enemies which spawn on beaches throughout the world map.
The main usage of Fish Fins in the speedrun is to refine into Water magic using I Mag-RF ability, learned from Shiva. Each Fish Fin is refined into 20 Water spells, so typically speedrunners will aim to obtain at least 5 Fish Fins so that 100 Waters can be created.
Random drop chance[edit | edit source]
Fish fins are most commonly obtained by fighting a minimum of 3 random encounters with 2 Fastitocalon-Fs, with the hope of obtaining 5 Fish Fins from these fights. The drop rate for a single enemy is as follows:
| No. dropped | Drop rate |
|---|---|
| 0 | 25.0% |
| 1 | 67.1% |
| 2 | 4.4% |
| 3 | 3.5% |
From these rates the following chances can be calculated for different numbers of fights:
| Drop rate for X Fish Fins | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. fights | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5+ |
| 1 | 6.3% | 33.5% | 47.2% | 7.7% | 4.9% | 0.4% |
| 2 | 0.4% | 4.2% | 17.2% | 32.6% | 28.0% | 17.6% |
| 3 | 0.02% | 0.4% | 2.7% | 9.8% | 21.1% | 66.0% |
| 4 | 0.002% | 0.03% | 0.3% | 1.7% | 5.9% | 92.1% |
Drop manipulation[edit | edit source]
It is possible to manipulate the number of Fish Fins dropped in a single encounter, allowing for alternative routes that save time by cutting the number of required Fastitocalon-F fights, at the cost of the extra AP gained by those fights.
When starting a random encounter, there are 256 possible versions of the battle that can occur, known as "indexes". For each index, the RNG that dictates the number of Fish Fins dropped is consistently predicatable, which allows for specific actions to be taken to ensue a high number of drops. There are therefore 2 steps to any manipulated fight:
- Identify the index: Using a combination of Squall/Quistis starting ATB, enemy targets and damage rolls, it is possible to identify which of the 256 possible indexes has been selected.
- Progress the RNG: For each index there is a specific set of actions that can be performed to consistently progress the RNG to the desired point. This is usually in the form of ATB refreshes, which must be performed during a battle animation.
There are currently 2 different possible manipulation methods for step 2:
- Quezacotl method
- Thunder is cast on each fish to force them to pop out of the sand, and then Quezacotl is summoned. ATB refreshes are then performed during the Quezacotl summon animation. The long animation has the benefit of allowing for more ATB refreshes to be performed, however this method is slower as a result. Due to the fact that both enemies are killed at once, for some indexes it is impossible to procure the desired 5 fins, with 4 being the best outcome.
- Kaivel method
- Squall casts Thunder on one of the fish, and ATB refreshes are performed by Quistis during the Thunder animation, before casting Laser Eye on the fish to kill it. This process is then repeated for the second enemy. The short window for ATB refreshes means that some indexes are impossible to manipulate, but those that can be manipulated can always achieve at least 5 fins. On average a fight using this manipulation is also faster than one using the Quezacotl method.