Final Fantasy Tactics:

Vampire% Challenge (No JP Run)!

What is the goal in this challenge run?

This is a vanilla playthrough of Final Fantasy Tactics with an extreme ruleset: We are not allowed to spend any "job points" in this playthrough!

What are Job Points?

Whenever a character executes an action on the battlefield, they earn experience (slowly bulking up the character's base stats) and also earn job points. Spending job points is how most playthroughs earn crucial skills necessary to progress through the game (e.g. Cure, Potion, etc.). Beating the game without access to any skill is not possible.

If you can't spend job points for required skills, how will you win?

There is another method to earn skills, and it depends on much RNG. When a human unit perishes in the battlefield, they either became a treasure chest or a crystal (whether a corpse becomes a treasure or crystal is purely random). Collecting the treasure chest merely gives the party a new item. The crystal, however, may be collected for one of up to two uses. The unit that picks up the crystal may optionally restore all HP/MP on themselves; this is always a choice whenever harvesting a crystal.

Sometimes, however, there is a chance for the unit to gain new skills. If the human that perished and turned into a crystal had access to skills that were not yet available to the person collecting the crystal, then there is a possibility for the option to learn each of those skills. For example, if a Chemist uses Phoenix Downs in battle, it is clear that the Chemist has learned the skill "Phoenix Down;" if that Chemist perishes, and if their corpse becomes a crystal instead of a treasure, there is a chance that someone who does not know the skill Phoenix Down may learn it by collecting that crystal.

Thus, our goal is to harvest crystals from human corpses on the battlefield to learn new skills on our characters. And even then, the run depends on a lot of luck, since this is all up to chance.

There is a lot of randomness with crystals. How exactly do the crystal mechanics work?

This guide explains more thoroughly how the crystal mechanics work (see section 6.1). There is one final method of learning skills; most people who know this game well are familiar with Ramza being able to learn Ultima through a third method. Section 6.4 of the guide linked above explains how that mechanic works (note that there are some lesser known magic spells that may be learned through this method).

Have you beaten this challenge before? Is it even possible to win without spending Job Points?

Yes! If you'd like to see how our previous two runs ended (which skills each team member learned by the end of the game), check out this archive on our first Vampire% run as well as this archive on our last Vampire% run!

Are there any other rules to this challenge run besides not being allowed to spend Job Points?

While attempting this challenge, we discovered that sometimes this challenge can be unnecessarily cruel, and we also discovered one method to exploit the game despite the No JP restriction. So, we have come up with two rules that help balance the challenge.

1. Story Battles generally have human enemies with new skills available. These battles are essentially your progression, you depend on skills to upgrade your team. Unfortunately, with very bad luck, all of the enemies might turn into chests instead of crystals, meaning that the player won't learn a single skill. So, if the player does not earn even a single skill, the player may reset and try the battle again. As long as the player earns a single skill, no matter how trifling the skill may seem to be, they are not allowed to reset a story battle.
2. Near the middle of the game, the player might learn a skill called "Invitation." This skill allows the player to recruit enemy units, which may be sacrificed later so that team members can learn skills off of their crystal. Because of this, Invitation can tip the scales and allow the player to learn many skills, way beyond the spirit of the challenge. To balance this exploit, the player may only recruit up to one human unit per battle with Invitation.

What skills have we learned in this run?

Below we've noted all skills available to each of our main characters that we are using in this run. At any given time, a character has access to the primary command skill available to their current job, and they may optionally equip up to four more types of skills:

1. A secondary command skill (e.g. Knights access Battle Skills as their primary skill, and they may use any secondary command skill like "Item" or "White Magic")
2. A reaction skill (this type of skill performs an action when procced by the enemy)
3. A support skill (this is a passive skill that always applies during the battle)
4. A movement skill (this type of skill provides more movement options to a unit on the battlefield)

Next time we attempt this challenge run, we'll update the list of skills available to each of our main party members below. Ramza is guaranteed to know Wish at the beginning of any playthrough:

Rams Ass

Squire

1. Wish (Command)