How to "cheat" at stealing in Final Fantasy IX?
I'm in CD2, fighting Tantarian. My characters are fairly high leveled for the place and can withstand the boss reasonably well, so survival tips are not needed. But stealing the Demon's Mail is difficult, of course (it's one of the 3 Really Really Difficult steals in the game). I'm using ePSXe emulator instead of playing on a console, so save states are available. Nonetheless, I've spent several hours already without luck.
I've scoured teh interwebs and the only strategy I found is to attempt stealing at different points in game-time, since it appears that the random number generator that determines the steal's success is based on game time and people suggest that it changes once per second. It also seems that the success/fail is determined at the moment Zidane executes the action. Finally, I know with certainty that the chance to get the item is 1/256.
However I've just tried stealing at 256 consecutive seconds in game-time, and still no luck.
The way did it was to select "Steal" on Zidane and then select Tantarian (which freezes everyone's ATB), but then wait until a specific second rolls around using the countdown timer present at that point in game.
Is there anything I've missed? Are there other options?
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How many times can you steal ff9?
Final Fantasy IX Enemies can have up to four items to steal, and the player can steal repeatedly form the same enemy until they have no items left, however, the rare items may take numerous attempts. Zidane is the only permanently playable Thief.How many times can Zidane steal?
Zidane can use Detect to see what items an enemy holds. The Vice and Magic Vice can also steal from the player. Once an enemy steals an item from the player, it cannot be retrieved even when the enemy is defeated. Stealing 50 times in the mobile/Steam version, earns the Sticky Fingers achievement.How do you get thievery in ff9?
Final Fantasy IX Thievery is learned from two weapons: The Tower (found in the final dungeon) and Angel Bless (synthesis). Its damage is calculated from Zidane's Speed stat and the successful steals by Zidane, Blank, Marcus and Cinna throughout the game, including steals before Thievery is learned.The basics of stealing items in Final Fantasy 9
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