Final Fantasy 16 (FF16) might be the most action-oriented game so far in the main Final Fantasy series, but it hasn’t abandoned its RPG roots entirely. That’s why it has a skill tree—well, it’s not exactly a tree, but you do have an Abilities screen where you can spend Ability Points to learn, upgrade, and master Abilities.
One thing that the game doesn’t really explain up front is what mastering Abilities actually is, and how it’s different from upgrading them. However, the information is there if you know where to look.
What is learning Abilities in Final Fantasy 16?
When you first start playing Final Fantasy 16, half of your basic combat abilities are not yet learned. That means you can’t use them at all. For a small number of Ability Points, you can learn each one. I’d say it’s worth learning every one of them in order to give yourself as many options in combat as possible. When you hover over most learned Abilities, you’ll see that you now have the option to spend more Ability Points to either upgrade or master that Ability.
Related: All Final Fantasy 16 Dominants
What is upgrading Abilities in Final Fantasy 16?
Your basic combat Abilities can’t be upgraded, but some Eikon Abilities can. The upgrade effects vary from Ability to Ability, but usually, it increases the number of hits inflicted by the ability. While Abilities aren’t really combos, they do unleash a whole series of hits, and upgrading them increases the number of hits, meaning that they inflict more damage. To see exactly what effect each Ability upgrade has, hover over an Ability and press Triangle to see more details.
What is mastering Abilities in Final Fantasy 16?
Most of your basic combat Abilities in Final Fantasy 16 can be mastered, as can all of your Eikon Abilities, although most of them will need to be upgraded before you can master them. Mastering an Ability is basically just giving it its final, or more often only, upgrade. So, when you master an Ability, you make it better or more powerful in some way. The specific effect of mastering an Ability to Ability, but you can check each Ability’s mastery effect by hovering over it on the Abilities screen and pressing Triangle.
Some Ability masteries are more useful than others, which is especially important if you’re playing on Action Focused mode. For example, Downthrust mastery increases its damage and area-of-effect range, which is pretty awesome. Stomp mastery, on the other hand, increases its maximum kicks to two, and I don’t see the point of that against most enemies. I find that even stomping an enemy once sends me up too high to hit it with the first blow of a combo. Maybe I just haven’t found an enemy tall enough yet.
