Force Ability

Force Ability is a type of attacks in all mainline games in the Wild Arms series.

Overview

Force Abilities are distinguished from other types of combat skills by their consumption of Force Gauge. It usually limits their use until after several turns into a battle. As such, Force Abilities tend to be more powerful and have special effects.

Force Abilities' more conventional counterpart are the Original Commands, which often require MP or ammo to be used.

Wild Arms 1-2

Ashley's Force Abilities. Level 1 can be used, levels 2 and 4 - cannot. Level 3 is not yet acquired.

In Wild Arms and Wild Arms 2 each permanent playable character has four Force Abilities. They consume Force Points in multiples of 25: 25, 50, 75, and 100 FP for Force Abilities Level 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. Each character starts with at least one Force Ability, and acquires the rest through plot progression or sidequests.

A notable trait of "modifier"-type Force abilities in Wild Arms 2 is that they do not drain FP until the action is completed. As such, the player can use them in conjunction with Force-reliant Original Commands. This allows, for example, to use Brad's Rail Gun, that requires, but does not consume 99FP, alongside Lock On. However, it's impossible to combine such a command with another Force Ability, such as Ashley's Accelerator and Full Clip, even if there's enough FP for both.

Wild Arms 3-4

In Wild Arms 3, Wild Arms Alter Code: F, and Wild Arms 4 each character has one personal Force Ability, which costs 25 FP to perform. These skills are unique, and can't be used by the others. All characters start with their Force Ability.

In Wild Arms 3 there's also two universal Force Abilities, which can be used by any character. One of them is Gatling, which makes the character shoot until they are out of either ammo or FP, whichever comes first. Each shot consumes 20 FP, but that can be lowered by upgrading the WGT stat. The other universal Force Ability is Summon, which consumes all of the character's FP, increasing in power for consumed FP. Summon can be used even with 1 FP.

In Wild Arms Alter Code: F there's one exception to the 25 FP cost - Cecilia's Material. Its cost and effects depends on the Medium used for the summon. There are summons with cost ranging from 25 to 100 FP.

In Wild Arms 4, besides the personal Force Abilities, there's Force Combination Arts, which require several characters to perform.

Wild Arms 5

In Wild Arms 5 Force Abilities are tied to Mediums instead of characters. Each Medium has four Force Abilities, with their price increasing from 25 to 100 FP in multiples of 25. Some of the Force Abilities are present on more than one Medium. The last Force Ability of each Medium is the summon of its corresponding Guardian.