Final Fantasy IX

Ragtime

About

As you are walking around in the forests, you’ll probably come across a guy named “Ragtime” at some point. When he shows up, you’ll hear different music. If you hear the music and some guy show up with an ‘X’ on one side and an ‘O’ on the other, that’s Ragtime. If anything else shows up, see the Friendly Monsters Section. You’ll want to answer his questions right every time to get a cool prize!

Where to Find

You can meet Ragtime at any point you’re wandering in a forest - provided it’s been more than 20 seconds since your last battle. If you’re explicitly looking for Ragtime, make sure you let the characters just sit there for 20+ seconds after each encounter. You can run into him a maximum of:

Story Window	Maximum Encounters
Before you get to the Outer Continent	4 times
Before you get Hilda Garde 3	6 more times
After you get Hilda Garde 3	6 more times

Gaming the System

The normal random encounter timer is reset after a battle. It picks a random number of seconds you can move with the buttons depressed before the next battle. You can game the system by repeatedly tapping the direction button instead of holding it down. Ragtime encounters, however, do not follow this algorithm and can happen any time you’re moving around in a forest. By exploiting this concept, you can rapidly get all available Ragtime appearances in any forest - including four back-to-back encounters in the forest just outside the Ice Cave toward the beginning of Disc 1 - netting you a quick 7,000 gil.

Quick Method: After each encounter, wait 20+ seconds, then tap the direction button through a forest instead of holding it down. Regular random battles care about held movement time. Ragtime does not.

Quiz Questions and Answers

The questions are asked in random order, so they’re listed here alphabetically to make it easier to find. Remember, “O” is True and “X” is False.

Question	Answer
Berkmea Cable Cars have been running for 8 years.	True
Bobo Bird is a bird that brings you fortune. (OK, the Lindblum Inn statue says “Bobo Birds are symbols of good fortune, according to an Olgan Myth. Despite that, however…)	False
Chocobo Forest is located between Lindblum and South Gate.	True
Conde Petie is a village of Goblins.	False
Fossil Roo is a tunnel that connects Treno and Alexandria.	False
”I want to be your Canary” was written by Lord Afon.	False
Lindblum Castle is larger than Alexandria Castle.	True
Lindblum’s Air Cabs operate around the clock.	True
Only one desert exists in the entire world.	False
Prima Vista means love at first sight.	False
Some Mus are friendly and don’t attack.	True
The 15th Lindblum war started in 1600.	False
The Theater Ship Prima Vista was built in Artania Shipyards.	False
Theater Ship Prima Vista uses Mist as its source of energy.	True
Treno’s cafe, , is member’s-only.	True
You can defeat Ragtimer.	True

Rewards

After giving the correct answer the battle ends and you are awarded 0 EXP, 0 AP, and No Items. However, you do get gil from these battles. As you provide more correct answers, the rewards go up:

Correct Answer	Reward
1-3	1,000 Gil
4-5	2,000 Gil
6-7	3,000 Gil
8-9	4,000 Gil
10-11	5,000 Gil
12-13	6,000 Gil
14-15	7,000 Gil
16	10,000 Gil

Defeating Ragtime

After you have answered all the questions, the next time you encounter Ragtime he’ll deliver your score. If you’ve gotten them all correct, you’ll get a bunch of XP, a bunch of Gil, and a . Having Quina in the party with the Millionaire skill increases your pay.