Shikari (2024)

Warriors who fight nimbly across hill and dale.

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age description

Shikari is a License Board in the Zodiac versions of Final Fantasy XII, represented by the zodiac sign of Pisces.

Shikari has access to 137 licenses, which require 8,016 LP to unlock, as well as up to 10 additional licenses through summon licenses costing 690 LP, and 4 additional licenses costing 520 LP through Quickening licenses (however, a character only has three Quickenings, and thus the player needs to forsake one of the licenses hidden behind the Quickenings).

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Shikari's main weapons are daggers and ninja swords. Shikari equips light armor and can use all three Swiftness licenses, and can equip many shields. By purchasing Esper licenses, it can learn the Protectga and Shellga spells and use guns. Shikari has access to the second highest HP augment, behind Monk with all of them; it is the only job, other than Monk, with access to the third highest HP augment without Espers or Quickenings. Ninja swords have a consistently higher combo rate than other weapons until the highest weapon tier, when weapons added in the Zodiac re-release combo more often.

Shikari cannot wield the most powerful shields, can only cast two white magick spells, and has few augments for boosting attack power. It is the only job whose four Quickening licenses unlock a separate section of weapon licenses^{[note 1]} each, making it impossible to acquire all weapon licenses for the job. Shikari is thus the only job that cannot unlock all licenses on its board. Forgoing Ninja Swords 1 is no loss for the informed player, for those weapons cannot be found until the same time or later than Ninja Swords 3 and 4. The Lhusu Mines Site 9, where the Iga Blade (Ninja Swords 3) is found, and the Stilshrine of Miriam, for the Ashura (Ninja Swords 1), are both accessible after the party reaches Mt Bur-Omisace, and the Koga Blade (Ninja Swords 2) is available even earlier, and the other Ninja Swords 1 weapons are found after the Ashura. Iga and Koga Blades have the same stats apart from their elements, so the player could instead choose one and do without the other. Ninja swords can only be found in treasure chests, the one exception being the Mesa, bought at the Bazaar.

In The Zodiac Age the player can choose two License Boards for each party member.

Coupling Shikari with White Mage, Red Battlemage, Black Mage, or Bushi allows the character to equip the Yagyu Darkblade (Dark-elemental weapon) and the Black Robes (Dark damage boosted by 50%) at the same time, making for an ideal set-up for fighting Yiazmat. This setup also heals any teammate with dark-absorbing gear by attacking them, sort of like measures.

Despite ninja blades' high combo rate, the massive +50 Speed bonus the Germinas Boots provides is a greater benefit to damage dealt with ninja blades than Genji Gloves, so access to Genji equipment is an unnecessary consideration when coupling Shikari with another job.

The Dark-augmentation part of the Shikari pairings with White Mage, Red Battlemage, Black Mage, or Bushi can also be pulled off by pairing those same jobs with a Machinist using Dark Shot.

Shikari can also benefit from coupling with a job that provides heavy armor and a higher number of Battle Lores to bolster Strength. Coupling Shikari with Time Battlemage gives the Shikari heavy armor, five more Battle Lores, crossbows to attack flying enemies, and greatly increased utility from being able to cast all Time and Green Magicks. Pairing Shikari with Uhlan gives Shikari some heavy armor and additional Battle Lores and covers every element, and spears can hit flying enemies.

Pairing Shikari with Knight or Foebreaker can achieve the highest possible Evasion, in addition to providing heavy armor and additional Battle Lores. Knight and Foebreaker both have the shield licenses Shikari is missing: Shell Shield, Zodiac Escutcheon, and Ensanguined Shield, as well as the third Shield Block augment the Shikari lacks. A Shikari-Knight or Shikari-Foebreaker can wear one of those top-tier shields in one hand and the Shikari's Main Gauche dagger (with 50 Evasion) in the other. When a more offensive posture is desired, the Shikari can switch to ninja swords or the Knight's greatswords with their knockback and rapid strikes. The Foebreaker pairing also adds hand bombs to attack flying enemies for the early game or as an alternative to Telekinesis. The Knight coupling, on the other hand, can add additional White Magicks to the Shikari's arsenal.

A Shikari-Red Battlemage pairing also has access to those top-tier shields, but unlike the combinations with Knight or Foebreaker, it lacks the third Shield Block license. The Shikari-Red Battlemage combination makes up for the lesser Evasion with the ability to equip Yagyu Darkblade and Black Robes simultaneously. With Exodus, it can even equip a heavy armor helm for some additional Strength, or equip heavy armor entirely if facing enemies that absorb Dark damage and needing to switch from Yagyu to a different weapon.

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