Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles: How Bravery and Faith works

Perhaps the most nebulous stat in Final Fantasy Tactics is your characters' "Bravery" and "Faith" stats. The confusion over these two has existed since the original release on the PlayStation in the late 90s and persists through the brand-new Ivalice Chronicles. These are stats that, while having an impact, will only really matter if you are trying to really optimize each character, and in a casual playthrough, won't be things you necessarily have to worry about. That said, let's pull back the curtain on just what these two stats are, what they impact, and how you change them!

What are Bravery and Faith?

At their most basic level, Bravery and Faith impact physical skills and magical skills - the max values being 100 and minimum 0 - with Bravery impacting physical and Faith impacting magic. Now let's dig a bit deeper into both.

Bravery

There are main areas that Bravery will impact:

• Damage done with Knight Swords, Katanas, and bare-handed - Higher Bravery = more damage
• Finding rare items with the "Treasure Hunter (Move-Find in earlier versions)" ability - Lower Bravery = better chance
• Chance of a Reaction ability triggering - Higher Bravery = better chance
• The Dances "Witch Hunt" and "Mincing Minuet (Wiznaibus in earlier versions)" - Higher Bravery = more damage

Risks of High and Low Bravery

When it comes to trying to the two extreme ends of a unit's Bravery value - max being 100 and minimum being 0 - there isn't much of a reason not to have their Bravery stat as high as you can. The only real downside to this approach is that you will have a much harder time finding rarer items hidden on the battlefields. On the flip side, when a unit's Bravery starts hitting single digits, you not only run the risk of the character literally turning into a chicken, but deserting your army altogether. When turned into a chicken, the character will regain a single point of Bravery each turn until they break the 10-point threshold and change back; however, if the battle ends before that happens, that character will be lost as well. 

How to alter your character's Bravery

In combat, abilities such as the Orator's "Praise"  or Ramza's Gallant Knight's "Steel" will temporarily increase a unit's Bravery during combat. A fraction of those temporary bonuses will carry over after the fight at a rate of 4:1, meaning that for every 4 points you increase during battle, this results in a +1 to their base Bravery after combat.  The inverse is also true, with skills like the Orator's "Intimidate" that lowers a unit's Bravery.

Skills that alter Bravery:

• Orator's "Praise": +4 Bravery
• Ramza Gallant Knight's "Steel": +5 Bravery
• Ramza's Gallant Knight's "Shout": +10 (self target only) Bravery
• Orator's "Itimidate": -20 Bravery
• Mystic's "Trepidation": -30 Bravery
• Dancer's "Bravery Surge" Reaction: +3 Bravery (when attacked)

Faith

Faith is a bit more straightforward than Bravery and really only impacts two things:

• The damage spells - this includes Magic Guns - do (both to YOU and enemies) - Higher Faith = more damage
• The success rate of spells landing effects (both beneficial effects on and negative ones on enemies) - Higher Faither = more likely to succeed

Risks of High and Low Faith

Where you want a character's Faith stat to land will be based on the type of role you want them to fulfil. Frontline fighters that will be targets of Magick spells, you probably want to have lower Faith, so they take less damage. For those you plan to be slinging spells of their own, you will obviously want to keep it higher, BUT keep it below 95, otherwise you risk that character abandoning your army to follow their faith and beliefs. 

It's important to note that the "Faith" status effect that raises a unit's Faith to 100 will NOT cause them to leave your army at the end of a battle.

How to alter your character's Faith

Just like with Bravery, there are different skills you can use to increase or decrease Faith at a ratio of 4:1 (4 points will equal 1 point in base growth/loss on the unit after combat). Unlike Bravery, though, two status effects will either max our or lower a unit's Faith rating to zero, "Faith" and "Athiest" respectively, and won't trigger the base stat gains in a unit after combat is over.

Skills that alter Faith:

• Orator's "Preach": +4 Faith
• Mystic's "Belief": Causes "Faith" status (100 Faith stat)
• Bard's "Faith Surge" Reaction: +3 Faith (when attacked)
• Orator's "Enlighten": -20 Faith
• Mystic's "Disbelief": Causes "Atheist" status (0 Faith stat)

For more info and help on Final Fantasy Tactics, check out our other guides, including on the Job System, the Zodiac compatibility system, and how to recruit Final Fantasy VII's Cloud Strife into your party!