Unlike most RPG games, in which your party build choices are often limited by a lead member requirement or a lack of individual traits, Final Fantasy 6 throws 14 possible members at you, each with their own novel playstyle, and lets you make the choice. Furthermore, on more than one occasion you will find yourself requiring multiple teams to be created, thanks to some fantastic dungeon design. It’s best then to make sure that your chosen few can synergise well with each other, which is often achieved by tailoring them towards a specific strategy or damage type. The following are some of the best that we’ve discovered – let us know what your builds are in the comments at the bottom of the page!

Zero MP Stars

• Edgar
• Shadow
• Sabin
• Gau

You could be forgiven for thinking that this is a bit of a comedy build, after all surely you’d want to use MP and indeed Magic in a game where it’s so very powerful? Well sure, you could conform to the usual guides and faqs that point you this way, or you can venture off in your own direction, free from the shackles of resource management, rejecting the Ether and Tent alike! For too long have we suffered bowing to the whims of the MP total, the diminishing blue bar, the inevitable herald of the return to an inn!

Alright so it’s somewhat of a comedy build, because let’s face it you’re going to struggle to reliably restore your health without using some MP or items, but that doesn’t mean that each member here can’t do some excellent things without the need for them. Edgar has his fantastic tools of course, which can confuse and damage opponents as required. Sabin has his Blitz skills, of which one can actually heal the team quite reliably, and Gau can contribute similarly with his Rages. Last but by no means least is Shadow, who is capable of dealing fantastic damage with his varying Shuriken, and even takes advantage of elemental weaknesses by throwing the relevant swords in the mid and late game. Hell, with the possible exception of Sabin, each member can be pretty damned hard to kill in their own right, though in the case of Shadow this is more down to his evasion than raw defence.

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Magical Monsters

• Celes
• Terra
• Relm
• Strago

Having heard our assault on the MP users above, they’ve decided to band together to teach us and indeed that team a lesson, and if we’re honest we have to admit this team of magic users will likely deal a lot more damage than the Zero MP stars. Magic spells scale very well in Final Fantasy 6, and these three characters have the best possible statistical capabilities in that regard, which means they’ll deal tremendous damage in the latter third of the game.

You might find that they struggle in the early game, because equipment isn’t up to snuff and your spellbook is yet full, but once they scale a little later on nothing can stop them. Equipment like Force Armour and Shields, Red Caps, Mystery Veils and Minerva Bustiers will do wonders for their defences, and whilst Strago might seem like a weak point, some of his Robes are very useful. Celes’ Runic will hop to your defence at times, Strago has access to tremendous Lores like Mighty Guard and White Wind, and both Terra and Relm will have a sky high Magic stat with which to deal massive damage.  

Mitigation Masters

• Edgar
• Celes
• Strago
• Mog

Were you to experiment with our team above, you might learn that Strago’s Mighty Guard makes a great deal of difference in battle, thanks to it casting Protect and Shell on every party member. What might happen then, if you were to combine this with party members that already have a tremendous amount of defence? Mainly due to the equipment available to them, Edgar, Celes and Mog can have incredible levels of defence, and once this is accompanied by the above Lore, the mitigation is truly incredible.

In terms of practical application of this team, it’s actually pretty good too. Edgar’s Tools are always useful no matter the opponent, and Celes is likely the best all round character in the game. No doubt most will take advantage of the Dragoon Mog build, and this can leave Strago a little exposed, but his Lores are useful enough and he can equip either the Moogle, Nutkin or Behemoth suit to help with raw defence later in the game. It’s quite an unusual build, and Mog’s Dance skill is likely going to be wasted here in favour of more pointed damage options, but it’s certainly viable for most any content throughout the game.

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Ultimate Team

• Edgar
• Celes
• Terra
• Shadow

Fourteen members and we somehow manage to come up with an ultimate team? Well, it’s true that there will always be a certain amount of player bias when it comes to this kind of thing, but we’d be shocked if at least two of these members weren’t in almost every ‘ultimate’ team out there, such is their power. Raw damage output here is massive, with only Edgar dragging his heels slightly, but even then he’ll make up for it with Tools’ utility. Defence is sorted too thanks to incredible equipment choices throughout the game, plus Shadow’s unmatched Evasion stats.

Starting from the top, when you factor in equipment Edgar has the best standard defensive capabilities in the game, at least outside of some niche Gau transformations, which translates to him being a bit of a rock for the team; he’ll mop up random battles with no MP cost, especially if you invest in his Magic stat to pump up the damage of Flash, and he’ll often be used to chip in with healing where necessary. The same is largely true with Celes, though she’ll obviously do a lot better with magic, and whilst it’s true that Runic’s uses are limited in the final third of the game, equipment like the Minerva Bustier will mean she’s going to survive pretty much anything and keep throwing out powerful magic spells throughout.

Terra is broadly similar to Celes, in that she has great equipment choices and reasonable stats, however her magic should be significantly higher and her damage output will be much, much higher overall thanks to Trance. Finally, Shadow is just a tremendous character to take with any team. His Throw skill can be used to deal with both single targets and groups, he can adapt to elemental weaknesses by throwing the right weapons, and his evasion stat is absolutely incredible thanks to a combination of his equipment choices and the fact that Interceptor constantly assists him.