Limit Break is one of the oldest abilities in the Final Fantasy series, consistently letting characters pull off seemingly impossible feats, from Cloud’s Octaslash in Advent Children to Sabin suplexing a train in Final Fantasy VI.
Clive also gets the power of Limit Break in Final Fantasy XVI, letting you unleash a wild flurry of enhanced attacks. The feature will unlock automatically about a third of the way through the story, but there are a few easy tricks you can use to make your Limit Breaks even more powerful in Final Fantasy XVI.
4. Invest in Extra Limit Gauges
When you first unlock Limit Break Clive will only have two gauges, but you can actually upgrade to four gauges as early as you want, as long as you have the Skill Points. To upgrade Limit Break open the main menu and go into the Abilities sub-menu. Look at the circle with Clive’s normal skills and you’ll find Limit Break now unlocked in the middle, near the top. The first upgrade costs 1000 SP while the second will set you back 2000 SP, so it’s going to be quite the investment.
Still, it’s a great idea of focus on completing your Limit Break before other abilities, as having those extra gauges gives you a lot more flexibility during battle, with double the time for increasing your damage output along with some other beneficial effects we’ll get into.
3. Deactivate Your Limit
In order to use Limit Break you simply have to press down on R3+L3 when at least one gauge is full. However, one thing the game doesn’t tell you is that you can deactivate your Limit at any time by clicking the sticks down again. This stops your gauges exactly where they are, meaning you retain any gauge build that’s left.
This is a great thing to know for larger battles where enemies are spread out, and boss battles specifically. If you’re in the middle of a Limit Break but the boss jumps or flies away, make sure to deactivate to save as much of your gauges as possible. Making liberal use of activating and deactivating your Limit can help maximize your damage.
2. Use Limit Breaks to Heal
One of the best features of Limit Break is that it actually slowly recovers Clive’s health. This healing effect is active whenever you have Limit Break on, so in a pinch popping your Limit might be a great idea. You have a limited amount of Potions and Hi-Potions, and in some of the more intense boss and Eikon battles it’s easy to run out. In those case, you might want to strategically plan your Limit Break for when your health starts to get low.
1. Use Limit Break When Enemies Are Staggered
Limit Break essentially doubled your damage anytime you use it, but there’s a way to make that damage output even higher. When you break an enemy’s Will Gauge and Stagger them it starts multiplying your damage by 1.05x, and that number goes up as you cause more damage and use combos.
Limit Break similarly boosts your damage, so if you combine the two, you’ll get the best damage output you possibly can. Combining the Limit Break bonus with the Stagger bonus can essentially multiply your damage by three to four times. Because of this, it’s typically a good idea to save your Limit Gauges for when an enemy is staggered — unless you need some emergency healing, of course.
