Final Fantasy IV PS1 Character Guide

Cid: Abilities and Level Progression

Cid is an Engineer, not another spellcaster. Give him a sturdy outfit and let him fight, but remember Study. Knowing what you’re fighting is often worth more than one extra swing.

He joins at Level 20 with 788 HP and no MP. His weapon goes in his right hand. The starting outfit is Wooden in that hand and Prisoner on his body; the other slots are empty.

What Does He Learn Next?

Cid’s command list is Fight, Study, Item. His useful progression is in HP, physical stats and equipment rather than a series of new spells.

Study shows enemy HP and weaknesses when it works. For example, it displayed Cannibal at 440/440 HP with a Fire weakness, and an injured Treant at 119/335 with the same weakness. The numerator is CURRENT HP. Don’t read it as the enemy’s full starting health after you’ve already hit it.

Base Stats by Level

These are base primary stats, with equipment bonuses removed. HP and MP are the recorded maxima from this run, not guaranteed rolls. A dash means the base value is not established; missing levels are not interpolated. Attack, Defense and their multipliers are separate derived combat values.

Level	Max HP	Str	Agil	Vit	Wis	Will
20	788	21	9	24	5	5
21	852	22	10	25	5	5
22	920	23	10	26	5	5
23	999	24	10	27	5	5
24	1080	25	11	28	5	5
25	1158	—	—	—	—	—
26	1239	28	12	30	5	5
27	1324	29	12	31	5	5
28	1407	30	12	32	5	5
29	1490	31	13	33	5	5

Gains between adjacent recorded levels

Reaching level	HP gain	Primary-stat change
21	+64	Str +1, Agil +1, Vit +1
22	+68	Str +1, Vit +1
23	+79	Str +1, Vit +1
24	+81	Str +1, Agil +1, Vit +1
25	+78	Incomplete comparison
26	+81	Incomplete comparison
27	+85	Str +1, Vit +1
28	+83	Str +1, Vit +1
29	+83	Str +1, Agil +1, Vit +1

Equipment Modifiers

Equipment bonuses are fixed; they do not increase with your level. Add these primary-stat modifiers to the base values above. Defense and evasion belong to the equipment/combat calculation, not the five primary stats. This is the relevant equipment selection, not an exhaustive catalog.

Equipment	Primary-stat modifier	Notes
Wooden / ; early Prisoner, Leather, Iron, Feather and	None to the five primary stats	Attack and protection still change.
Gaia hammer	+5 Str	Removed from the base table.

Equipment: Affordable Does Not Mean Pointless

Filling his empty armor slots is useful even if he won’t stay for the whole game. The cheap Iron pieces in Agart offer physical protection; the arms slot is a choice rather than an automatic upgrade.

Agart Equipment Comparison at Level 20

Starting with Wooden, Leather head/body and :

Change	Defense power	Mag Def power
Initial comparison outfit	15	5
Leather head → Iron head	17	4
Leather body → Iron body	19	4
→	21	1

Keep if you want its magic protection. With the full Iron outfit and , Evasion was 0%, so “more Defense” doesn’t mean every defensive field improved.

The 8,000-Gil raises Attack power 55→65 at Level 20 without changing Accuracy or primary stats. Keep Wooden and a nonmetal outfit for the Magnetic Cavern. You will have a use for old equipment before long.

Later Flame armor and Gaia comparisons (equipment spoilers)

At Level 27, replacing Iron body armor with Flame raised Defense 21→32 and Mag Def 7→10 with Mythril, Feather and otherwise fixed.

Gaia adds 5 Str. Its displayed Attack improvement includes both the weapon change and the effect of that Strength bonus; the base table above removes the bonus. Keep Wooden available for the Magnetic Cavern.

Full joining combat profile

With Wooden and Prisoner: Str 21/Agil 9/Vit 24/Wis 5/Will 5, Attack 3 × 55, Accuracy 80%, Defense 1 × 13, Evasion 30%, Mag Def 0 × 1, Mag Eva 1%. EXP 26,754 and Next 5,345 put Level 21 at 32,099 total EXP.

With everything removed, primary stats are unchanged, while Attack becomes 3 × 10, Accuracy 55%, Defense 1 × 12 and Mag Def 0 × 0. Restore the equipment before walking into the next encounter.