Combat in Final Fantasy X has one of the more unique combat systems within the series. Battles are designed about the ability to freely swap out fighters and weapons in the heat of combat to better fit the situation. After all, hitting a flying enemy with a sword is pretty unreasonable. A volleyball, on the other hand, is both incredible design and the perfect weapon to dispatch fiends.

RELATED: 10 Hidden Details Everyone Missed In Final Fantasy X

Wakka is an interesting combatant.  Fortunately, within his standard Sphere Grid comes a collection of abilities that help him specialize further. They aren't all incredible abilities, but their niche uses will help when the time comes.

10 Extract Ability

FF10 Wakka Extract Ability

The least useful of Wakka's abilities is the Extract Ability. This is exclusive to the HD Remaster versions, which includes the version currently available on Xbox Game Pass. The ability costs one MP, and guarantees that an enemy will drop an Ability Sphere at the end of the battle. Since enemies don't always reliably drop Spheres, it's a good way to secure them.

However, in terms of usefulness in battle, it isn't much stronger than a regular basic attack. There's nothing really gained from using it in battle aside from extra Ability Spheres. For level grinding, it is an effective tool. It won't work on major boss battles (including powerful NPC bosses) either, making it exclusively a tool for regular battles. It's good to learn and costs little to use, but it doesn't have great value.

9 Osmose

Osmose has been a staple ability of the Final Fantasy series since the second entry. It also appears as the spell Apsir or Syphon, depending on the game. While normally a black mage ability, Wakka is able to use it. The move has no cost, deals damage, and drains a portion of the enemy's MP based on damage dealt. It's used to dry out enemy spellcasters and prevent them from attacking.

Unfortunately, Osmose isn't exactly great at its job. Most enemies have the auto-ability No MP Cost, which allows them to continue casting uninhibited by MP costs. There are other ways of shutting down spellcasters, and Wakka even has others of his own. The one upside is that Osmose deals damage that goes through defensive buffs like Protect or Shell. It's the most situational of Wakka's already situational ability set.

8 Drain

Drain, another series staple, is another spell from the black magic catalog that Wakka can learn. It costs 12 MP, which is a lot for Wakka's poor base MP. The ability deals damage and absorbs HP back based on a percentage of the damage dealt. It's a pretty standard attack that allows Wakka to self-sustain if a healer is not alive.

While Drain seems like something that would useful in any battle, it unfortunately is rather limited. The healing done by the ability is much less than anything even basic healing items can cover. It's deal damage while restoring HP, a rare trait, but it's just another basic attack ability. Since Wakka's damage can't match that of Tidus or Auron, it ends up wasted. At the very least, if times get tough, Drain isn't the worst possible option.

7 Sleep Attack

FF10 Wakka Sleep Attack

Wakka's main gimmick in battle is the ability to apply status ailments with ease. Other characters can equip weapons to apply status ailments, but Wakka tends to have better luck getting them to stick. They come in two flavors, "Attack" and "Buster." Sleep Attack is, obviously, in that first category.

RELATED: 5 Reasons Final Fantasy 7 Is The Best Game In The Series (& 5 It's Actually 10)

Sleep Attack has a low 5 MP cost, deals neutral damage, and has a 50% chance of inflicting Sleep on an enemy for three turns. Sleep is a status ailment that prevents the enemy from attacking until they are hit with a physical attack. It is a decent way of keeping one enemy from attacking for an extended time, but the increased duration is mostly irrelevant since most other characters will just break that status immediately.

6 Aim

 

Aim is Wakka's status buff. Each of the party members gets a stat buff exclusive to their section of the Sphere Grid. These special abilities can be stacked up to five times for increased effectiveness. Wakka's stat buff comes in the form of Aim. As expected, this ability increases the accuracy of the party members currently in combat. This increase is by 10%, stacking up to 50%.

Accuracy isn't exactly the most useful stat in the game. Ironically, it's actually less effective for increasing attack hit rate than Luck. This means that Kimahri is actually better for situations where accuracy is needed. Despite that, considering how the party has multiple attack-oriented characters, increasing accuracy does have value. No buff is truly terrible, even if accuracy isn't always useful. It's great to bring against highly evasive enemies, but not much else.

5 Dark Buster

The other flavor of status application, the "Buster" attacks, have a higher cost but always apply the status ailment. In the case of Dark Buster, has a 10MP cost, deals damage, and always applies Darkness on the enemies. However, unlike the "Attack" variant, the status will only last through the enemy's next upcoming turn.

Dark Buster has the opposite problem of Sleep Attack. While Sleep is situational and often most effective as a one-turn lockdown, Dark is an ailment that has more value the longer it lasts. The one-turn status is great for negating a single, powerful physical attack, but in drawn-out battles its cost isn't worth it. The attack's sound effect is definitely more satisfying, though, which is worth something.

4 Silence Buster

FF10 Wakka Using Silence Buster

The last status Wakka can inflict with his attacking abilities (not including equipment) is Silence. Silence prevents the enemy from casting any spells. It works on a number of enemies in the game, and certain enemies like the Flans or Elementals become completely neutered if they are silenced. Silence Buster, for 10 MP, applies silence guaranteed if the attack lands.

Silence and Dark are similar ailments. However, it is still technically possible to hit enemies through Darkness. Silence completely prevents spellcasting, which is massively effective depending on the opponent. Silence is an ailment that works best if applied for more turns, but a guaranteed silence still has the value of stopping a spellcaster in their tracks.

3 Sleep Buster

FF10 Wakka Talking With Tidus

Sleep Buster is the guaranteed version of Sleep Attack. It costs 10 MP, has a cool sound effect, and always applies sleep on targets that can be afflicted. As stated before, Sleep can be easily broken, but it will skip the enemy's next turn if they are affected. Since the status is likely to get broken by other party members (including Wakka), it's a very situational attack.

RELATED: Final Fantasy X: All Overdrives Of The Main Characters, Ranked

However, the Buster version is superior overall. Sleep is not an ailment worth flipping a coin on. Instead, having the ability to lock an enemy out of all actions is a great tool for a single turn, giving the player time to swap party members and equipment around to prepare for upcoming attacks. There are still better tricks in Wakka's arsenal, but Sleep Buster is worth using when necessary.

2 Silence Attack/Dark Attack

FF10 Wakka Silence Attack and Dark Attack

This may a surprise, but Silence Attack is functionally identical to Sleep Attack. It costs 5 MP, deals damage, and has a 50% chance of applying an ailment for three turns. This time, it's Silence, not Sleep. It's equally as useful as Dark Attack, which of course applies Darkness. Both status ailments are good in different situations, but their utilization puts them on the same tier.

As explained before, long turn counts on Silence and Dark have incredible value. They allow a continued offense from the player's whole party while still negating as much damage as possible. There isn't much else to say that hasn't already been said. So, here's a secret tip: give Wakka a weapon with Stonetouch. Petrification is considered a one-hit KO onto regular enemies and allows Wakka to clean up enemy encounters swiftly. It's the best status ailment he's got, even though it's not technically an ability.

1 Triple Foul

FF10 Wakka Using Triple Foul Ability

This list makes it clear that Wakka's three status ailments are Dark, Silence, and Sleep. Wakka fights dirty, despite his nobility in the Blitzball arena. His most powerful technique, located further along his Sphere Grid, is called Triple Foul. This attack has a relatively high cost for Wakka at 24 MP. However, along with dealing great damage, it also applies all three of Wakka's primary status ailments.

Triple Foul is also better than either the "Attack" or "Buster" variants. This move has a near 100% success rate for landing ailments, and each of them lasts for three turns. It's incredibly effective, covering all of the strengths with none of the drawbacks. The only limiting factor is MP cost, since using MP regeneration items on Wakka isn't the most worthwhile. Triple Foul is the reason Osmosis is even a part of Wakka's kit at all. Wakka's great with status ailments, and Triple Foul is the whole package.

Next: 10 JRPGs To Play If You Loved Final Fantasy 10