Carbuncle

Learn about Carbuncle's abilities in final fantasy viii, including how to refine items for infinite gil.

Carbuncle starts with Vit-J and can natively learn HP-J and Mag-J. Carbuncle is a good companion to the Ifrit GF, allowing another character to make use of Shiva, Siren and Diablos, both of which will have a good stat junction spread. Like Siren, Carbuncle has the ST-Atk-J, ST-Def-J and ST-Def-Jx2 abilities instead of Elem-Atk-J or Elem-Def-J, and like Diablos Carbuncle will bestow Ability x3 to its user - another reason to keep it separate from Diablos.

Other boons include the HP+20% and HP+40% abilities, as well as Vit+20%, Vit+40% and Vit Bonus, the latter of which gives a 1 point bonus to Vitality every time the equipped character levels up. The Counter ability will cause the equipped character to counterattack when targeted by an enemy’s physical attack, while Auto-Reflect will permanently give the equipped character the Reflect buff.

Finally, Carbuncle’s one refining ability, Recov Med-RF will allow you to refine items into restorative items. Perhaps the most interesting combo in the early-going is refining 4x Tents into a Mega-Potion, which can then be sold at a profit, providing infinite Gil.

Abilities and AP Costs:

• HP-J: 50 AP
• Vit-J: -- AP
• Mag-J: 50 AP
• ST-Atk-J: -- AP
• ST-Def-J: -- AP
• ST-Def-Jx2: 130 AP
• Ability x3: -- AP
• Magic: -- AP
• GF: -- AP
• Draw: -- AP
• Item: -- AP
• Counter: 200 AP
• Auto-Reflect: 120 AP
• HP+20%: 60 AP
• HP+40%: 120 AP
• Vit+20%: 60 AP
• Vit+40%: 120 AP
• Vit Bonus: 100 AP
• GFHP+10%: 40 AP
• GFHP+20%: 70 AP
• GFHP+30%: 140 AP
• Recov Med-RF: 30 AP