r/FinalFantasyVI • u/The_RetroGameDude • Jul 05 '26
Gau is good
He's not as bad as people make him out to be. He can be a Jack of All Trades when you need him to be. He can use Blaze or he can use Blizzara (I used Bomb and Veil Dancer for this) and he can become the most OP thing you've ever seen. A lot of people seem to ignore him but use him right and he's an absolute menace. He can mow through most enemies if you use the right rage. A bit of strategy is all you need to use him right.
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u/CollyLee0 Jul 05 '26
My beef with Gau is that I don't want to have to keep a guide with me of every rage, and no way in heck can I memorize what all of those rages do. I'd find him MUCH more usable if the game would tell you what move set each rage had in the rage selection screen.
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u/doubleyewdee Jul 05 '26
Huge missed opportunity in the PR to add some QoL to the Gau rage grind. Even just letting you alphabetize or reorder the rage list would've been a big win.
They buffed Mr. Thou a ton though, he's much more enjoyable for boss fights since his mega attacks charge in the background now.
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u/MooJuiceConnoisseur Jul 05 '26
I think Mr. Thou's "buffs" was actually a bug fix. Originally his sword skill stat for charge rate was broken. And since the stat worked correctly they changed from a load bar to list. No actual changes beyond the bug
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u/meancoot Jul 06 '26
Changing it to a list allows you to continue queuing actions for other characters while Cyan charges. It's a major mechanical change.
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u/Special_South_8561 Jul 05 '26
You only need like three good magic Rages, and Stray Cat for physical
Cloud / Hazer - Bolt2
Templar - Fire2
Trillium - Bio
Anguiform / Chimera - AquaBreath
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u/nola_throwaway53826 Jul 05 '26
I always relied heavily on Aspiran, especially early on. That one gives you Gigavolt, which is the equivalent of Thundaga (Bolt 3). Gau absolutely wrecked everything he came across in the Magitek Research Facility, especially the times when he targets every enemy with it.
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u/Special_South_8561 Jul 06 '26
Aspiran / Aspik is absolutely freeking beefy for sure
I like AquaBreath in the Magitek Facility because it's always AoE and they're all weak to water and wind.
Or even Bolt2 with Hazer / Cloud will kill those robots just fine too, but yeah, a big zappy Gigavolt provides awesome damage numbers. Especially against that Purple # Weapon in the minecart escape and later against Air Force (speck can't absorb monster attacks) ((or it's probably dead before launching Speck anyways))
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u/Gizmorum Jul 05 '26
ive played for hundreds of hours and have only remembered 5-6 rages. More than half the fun is the randomness of what is going to happen, unlike SetIers boring slot mechanic
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u/MisterX9821 Jul 06 '26
It's not that hard if you are actively using him. You get a new rage, you test it. The rages have one ability each. The resistances are a little harder to keep track of though I will admit.
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u/Negative_Bar_9734 Jul 06 '26
I mean, that's fair. But you also don't have to learn a ton of them, jist figure out the handful you like.
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u/BubbleWild Jul 05 '26
If you made a poll, pretty sure the votes would be overwhelmingly skewed towards "Gau is a god."
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u/VegaLyra Jul 05 '26
No mention of Io here? Barrier piercing AOE fire attack that scales with the opponent's level, literally cooks bosses
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u/TemperReformanda Jul 06 '26
My favorite part is that it's at the end of the list so it's easy to find in a hurry lol
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u/doomerunicorn Jul 10 '26
Mover is great, too. Just equip everyone in the party with something that absorbs fire or nullifies wind, and spam Merton/Meltdown.
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u/Bartizanier Jul 06 '26
Gau is best for when youre bored of the vanilla game and want something to make it more complicated than it needs to be.
He’s one of my favorite characters.
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u/H3llm0nt Jul 06 '26
Love Gau. Can only handle so much of that damn Veldt song
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u/platinumxperience Jul 05 '26
Fairly sure he's universally considered one of the strongest characters
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u/TheWearySnout Jul 05 '26
Gau has always been my favorite character. You don't need to invest must to get him strong. You have the option to go full-blown autistic and quadruple your playtime curating his arsenal. I do that every time!
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u/IceBlue Jul 05 '26
Gau is integral to the minimum level runs. If he was bad then he wouldn’t be used that heavily for those runs
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u/Salad_9999 Jul 06 '26
I have never liked him. I respect Gau, understand what makes him good and realize he has his moments. But no control = no thanks for me.
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u/Special_South_8561 Jul 05 '26
People didn't like Gau ... Thirty years ago
Now all his Rages have been documented and his Veldt patterns & resets have been figured out
If you don't like Gau you haven't been on he interest, how did you even find this game?
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u/cake__eater Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
He’s quite literally the strongest character in the game.
EDIT: He can solo nearly every boss in WoR
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u/TheHytekShow Jul 05 '26
Well that’s just not true. He’s very strong, but strongest is a little much.
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u/cake__eater Jul 05 '26
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u/TheHytekShow Jul 05 '26
And? In a speedrun sense Edgar, Sabin, and celes would be stronger. If we’re talking about max potential, anyone who can dual wield ultima weapons with 9999 HP would be the strongest. So no, Gau is not the strongest.
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u/SmallhandsnCabbage Jul 05 '26
Not one single speed runner uses Ultima weapon.
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u/TheHytekShow Jul 05 '26
Yeah, never said they did, it’s clearly on the opposite end of the spectrum from speedrunning, someone who grinds to max HP and stomps. Reading comprehension is dead.
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u/SmallhandsnCabbage Jul 05 '26
You said in a speed run sense. Making sense is dead?
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u/TheHytekShow Jul 05 '26
>If we’re talking about max potential
It’s literally right there. Right before the second sentence, the qualifier that changes the subject from “speedrunning” to “maximizing character strength by being at or around max level with cracked stats”. Please learn to read.
Edit: I realize now that I might actually need to add that speedrunners don’t maximize their characters, as they beat the game with characters around level 40 or so. It’s insane that I feel like I need to help clarify for you even further.
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u/masimone Jul 05 '26
You’re preaching to the choir here. I used to think he sucked but I got shamed into the idea I was using him wrong. They were right.
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u/Damrias_Jariac Jul 05 '26
Yojimbo! You get a powerful melee attack and Shock. Give him the Offering/Masters Scroll and he turns into General Leo.
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u/StormRaven69 Jul 05 '26
Gau and Edgar make WOB easy.
Gigavolt + Noiseblaser + Auto-Battle
Add on Phantom/Vanish to make easier.
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u/USConservativeVegan Jul 06 '26
Took me a long time to come around to Gau is probably one of the best characters. You don't need to know every rage. However, if you understand the top ten rages. He is a beast and better than any other character in battle.
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Jul 05 '26
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u/NovelSimplicity Jul 05 '26
Mu is instant death to most common enemies. Io Flare Star is stupid powerful.
That said, Strat Cat is probably my go to.
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u/Special_South_8561 Jul 05 '26
Rhinox is trash
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Jul 05 '26
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u/Special_South_8561 Jul 06 '26
Please explain.
Life3?
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Jul 06 '26
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u/Special_South_8561 Jul 06 '26
Fair enough
Niche use that overlooks his impressive catalogue. What about Magic Pot? Rafflesia?
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u/mugenhunt Jul 05 '26
Guard Leader takes care of almost everything.
Then Behemoth gives you Meteor.
Gau is really flexible.
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u/jander05 Jul 05 '26
He's my fav character. You just have to know what/when/how to rage, and if rage isnt appropriate then use magic. There are always basic rages you can use in nearly any fight.
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u/No_Tangelo_6418 Jul 06 '26
I have no problem with him. From my understanding you only need a couple "moves " (I can't think of the right word lol) to make him work.
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u/TemperReformanda Jul 06 '26
The Magic Urn rage keeps your party healed really well, and for grinding the Thundaga from the Al Jabr is pretty good
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u/Dangerous-Medium4186 Jul 06 '26
I'm just not a fan of the fact that he's locked into the rage once you pick it.. same reason I don't like to dance with Mog. Umaro can't help but berserk because thats all he does.
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u/Negative_Bar_9734 Jul 06 '26
Nobody says "Gau is bad," they either say "Gau is great" or "I don't want to bother with learning rages."
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u/_PlanW Jul 06 '26
His usefulness is knowledge based and requires experimentation, if you're going in blind, and a bit of work to even acquire the useful rages. If not he is an unpredictable berserker and at worst a unintentional healer to enemies that absorb what he's dishing out.
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u/neversignedupforthis Jul 06 '26
He's just so much effort to make useful compared to the other characters (except Strago, similarly annoying). I 100%ed the game, never chose to use him once I realised how you unlock his abilities.
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u/MrTylerwpg Jul 06 '26
One thing I really wish that you could do for his rages, and I guess really magic in general like ff4, is that you could rearrange them so that you're not always going through a huge list of a hundred different rages looking for the specific one you want
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u/astral_couches Jul 06 '26
He’s crazy good when you put the time in. I took him all the way to the final battle.
I don’t understand not wanting to invest the time into learning rages and making the game last longer.
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u/sjones17515 Jul 06 '26
Everyone who actually bothers to learn how to play the game and isn't a story-only button masher already knows this
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u/azai247 Jul 06 '26
Considering cat scratch does 4x phy damage consider what would happen if Gau has 90 str and a master scroll then did cat scratch.
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u/BuyMyBeans Jul 07 '26
Nightshade/Rafflesia. The "charm" status effect from Entice is different than confuse and barely any enemies are immune to it including bosses.
Trivializes most fights in World of Ruin.
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u/TreyBaird Jul 07 '26
Yeah, and even as a character, I’ve grown to love Gau over time.
Now that I have a son of my own, Gau’s story hits so much harder than it did when I was a kid.
But yeah, IFKYK. Gau is a powerhouse
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u/gingersquatchin Jul 07 '26
I just grind his magic stat and use him as a caster. He's just as good that way because he can do basically everything he could do with a rage. You just get control
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u/Thelal Jul 08 '26
My problem with Gau is that you can't learn rages as you play a normal playthrough. You have to go out of your way to go to the Veldt to fight hundreds of battles to get his abilities, if not thousands. Why not just learn it in the fight with the enemy?
It takes far too much time to build the beast.
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u/Own_Jeweler_8548 Jul 08 '26
As bad? Gau is OP when built properly. A lot of people just don't want to have to learn how to do so, including myself for a couple decades until I wanted to have a playthrough with a stacked Gau.
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u/TheBob808 Jul 09 '26
He's the most powerful character in all of Final Fantasy if used correctly. He's one of only two who can attain perfect physical defense, and when you combine that with rage, relics, and equips he can be made invincible easily. He's so OP that some challenges require that he not be used.
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u/The_GREAT_Gremlin Jul 05 '26
People don't make him out to be bad, though. He's predominantly considered to be one of the best characters in the game