Final Fantasy 10 presents unique mechanics in the battle system. While the weapons and armor aren't as exciting or profound as the Sphere Grid, you can get much value from facing certain enemies throughout the story.
Whether you focus on amping up your stats with the armor, targeting certain immunities, or auto-casting particular abilities, it's always important to customize your armor and improve your characters with them.
You must get to Guadosalam before armors become important for the game's progression since you can't customize them. So, this ranking will focus more on the ability each armor has than the armor itself.
Please note some of the armor's names won't change after adding specific abilities, but it will state what abilities you should add.
Also, we will be using Tidus' armor names, but it is easy to get the other characters' names through each armor's abilities.
The post-end game of Final Fantasy 10 is when the armor truly flourishes as enticing and essential. So, let's rank them!
5. Crystal Shield
Throughout your journey in Spira, you will encounter many elemental enemies, and there’s no better option than the Crystal Armor to deal with them.
Crystal Armor has four abilities:
- Fire Eater
- Lightning Eater
- Water Eater
- Ice Eater
These are the best abilities to deal with elemental damage because you can heal from their attacks. It’s a better version of Fire/Lightning/Water/Ice Proof.
It doesn’t rank higher because elemental damage isn’t as prominent in the endgame as in the earlier portions of the game. Nonetheless, it is easier to obtain than most of the best armors in the game, and provides insane utility for specific enemies.
What Crystal Shield Excels In:
- Making elemental enemies obsolete;
- Being easier to obtain than most higher-ranked armors;
- Healing your character without taking action.
How to Get Crystal Shield:
- Fire Eater: Fire Gem (x20)
- Lightning Eater: Lightning Gem (x20)
- Water Eater: Water Gem (x20)
- Ice Eater: Ice Gem (x20)
4. Sanctuary
Sanctuary is the armor that possesses one of the best abilities in all equipment: Ribbon. During the later portion of the game you will have to deal with enemies that drive you crazy because of the negative effects they cast on your characters.
More often than not, your characters will have multiple ailments, such as confusion, petrification, berserk, silence, etc. So, having Ribbon in at least one of your characters will save you against frustrating enemies.
Assuming you want to dive deep into the post-end game of Final Fantasy 10, Ribbon is one of the best abilities to have in your party against the Dark Aeons because they cast seemingly every negative status effect on your characters.
Unfortunately, it is one of the most challenging abilities to learn in Final Fantasy 10. It is still worth it, but you need to grind a lot, and its primary purpose is for the post-end game.
What Sanctuary Excels In:
- Having one of the best abilities in the game;
- Making you immune to almost all ailments;
- Allowing you to survive against Dark Aeons.
How to Get Sanctuary:
- Ribbon: Dark Matter (x99)
You can get Dark Matter from the Area Conquest and Species Conquest in Monster Arena in the Calm Lands. They are rare drops, making it hard to obtain the Ribbon ability.
3. Assault Shield
Two of the best abilities you can get on any armor are Auto-Protect and Auto-Haste, which Assault Shield possesses. You can also add Auto-Shell, Auto-Reflect, or Auto-Regen, making it even more useful.
So, in total, Assault Shield can have three of these five abilities:
- Auto-Haste
- Auto-Protect
- Auto-Reflect
- Auto-Regen
- Auto-Shell
For the later portions of the game, enhancing your defense against destructive attacks is essential, mainly because your stats could already be at their peak. Complementing it, Haste is one of the best abilities in the game, so having it automatically helps you tremendously.
If you want to succeed in the post-end game of Final Fantasy 10, you need to dive in on your armor because stats alone won’t make you win fights.
The Assault Shield will be one of your best options to defeat the Dark Aeons, Penance, or Nemesis, for example.
What Assault Shield Excels In:
- Enhancing your party defensive prowess with Auto-Protect;
- Allowing you to attack more and delay enemies’ attacks with Auto-Haste;
- Helping you defeat the best bosses in the game.
How to Get Assault Shield:
- For Auto-Haste, you need Chocobo Wings (x80)
- For Auto-Protect, you need Light Curtain (x70)
- For Auto-Regen, you need Healing Spring (x80)
- For Auto-Reflect, you need Star Curtain (x40)
- For Auto-Shell, you need Lunar Curtain (x80)
Most of them you can get from the Species Conquest, and if you have a lot of money you can get 60 Chocobo Wings by bribing Machea in the Omega Ruins for 360,000 Gil.
2. Revive Shield
As the name implies, this armor is a savior. It allows you to heal constantly, or in case of death, to revive you. Having at least one Auto-Phoenix, but ideally, two in your team, is the gateway for defeating the more haunting bosses in the game.
These are the abilities Revive Shield possesses:
- Auto-Potion
- Auto-Med
- Auto-Phoenix
The previous armor is essential to withstand stronger attacks, but, unfortunately, the post-end game gets to a level where your characters die to one attack. And while Haste allows you to delay enemies' attacks, Auto-Phoenix makes you almost invincible because you can use Phoenix Downs without wasting a turn.
Auto-Potion and Auto-Med are also incredibly useful for healing your HP or negative status effects.
What Revive Shield Excels In:
- Making your team almost unbeatable with Auto-Phoenix;
- Healing your team constantly without skipping turns;
- Healing your negative status effects;
- Being easily attainable compared to the lowered ranked armors.
How to Get Revive Shield:
- For Auto-Potion, you need Stamina Tablet (x4)
- For Auto-Med, you need Remedy (x20)
- For Auto-Phoenix, you need Mega Phoenix (x20)
This armor's combination of utility and attainability makes it rank this high.
1. Ultimate Armor
There isn’t a specific Ultimate Armor in the game. Still, due to the customization aspect of Final Fantasy 10, the community agrees upon the best abilities to add, making it the best armor in the game.
There are some variances, but some abilities are indisputably essential to overcome the challenges that await you after the story ends.
Auto-Protect and Auto-Haste reign supreme in the top-ranking abilities in the game, making it prominent to craft the Ultimate Armor.
By default, Auto-Phoenix almost single-handedly puts the Revive Shield at number 2 in this ranking, so it’s necessary if you want to avoid the “Game Over” screen.
Lastly, two abilities discuss the last spot for the armor: Ribbon and Stoneproof.
Ribbon is the best option here, but due to the grind required to obtain the ability, you can go by with Stoneproof.
Making an Ultimate Armor isn’t as straightforward as the previous ones. There are still two abilities that make it harder to resist not adding, namely the Defense +20% and the Auto-Potion.
To create the Ultimate Armor you need:
- Auto-Haste
- Auto-Protect
- Auto-Phoenix
And one of these:
- Ribbon
- Stoneproof
- Defense +20%
- Auto-Potion
What Ultimate Armor Excels In:
- Reviving your party members with Auto-Phoenix;
- Allowing you to withstand physical attacks and to delay the enemies’ turns;
- Complementing the best abilities in the game;
- Adding versatility to your team.
How to Get Ultimate Armor:
- For Auto-Phoenix, you need Mega Phoenix (x20)
- For Auto-Haste, you need Chocobo Wings (x80)
- For Auto-Protect, you need Light Curtain (x70)
- For Ribbon, you need Dark Matter (x99)
- For Auto-Potion, you need Stamina Tablet (x4)
- For Defense + 20%, you need Blessed Gem (x4)
- For Stoneproof, you need Petrify Grenade (x20)
Unlike many Final Fantasy entries, in Final Fantasy 10, the abilities dictate the effectiveness of your equipment and not the other way around, so ranking armors will always depend on your customization.
Although it is unorthodox to place an Ultimate Armor that complements every ability from the previously ranked armors, that’s how it works in Final Fantasy 10.
Simply put, prioritize gathering items required to add more vital abilities and make it flourish for the post-end game. You might think it isn’t worth it, but the content you get after defeating Sin is way more challenging. You’ll be able to defeat incredible bosses and see your party reach levels of awesomeness you couldn’t have without delving into the post-end game.
