Cactuar

Cactuar
Final Fantasy series
Japanese name	サボテンダー
Romaji	Sabotendā

The Cactuar is a recurring creature in the Final Fantasy series. It appears in Dragon Quest Tact as part of a collaboration event with War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. Since their original appearance, they have become one of the mascots of the series, being known for their 1000 Needles attack.

Characteristics

Cactuars are green anthropomorphic cacti typically depicted with stiff arms and legs, three black holes that form a face, and three quills on top of their heads. This design has commonly appeared throughout the series, although some games such as Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XII have introduced Cactuars with different designs. Despite having low HP and Defense, Cactuars are often fast and hard to hit, rewarding players with high amounts of experience and gil if defeated. They often counter most attacks with their 1000 Needles attack, which always deals 1000 points of unblockable damage that ignores the target's Defense. The attack can often be learned by Blue Mages, who specialize in using monster techniques.

An enormous variety of Cactuar, known as the Jumbo Cactuar or Gigantuar, first appeared in Final Fantasy VIII as an optional boss. It could be summoned as a Guardian Force after defeating it in battle. It towers over the party and it sports a curly mustache in order to differentiate it from other Cactuars. Instead of using the signature 1000 Needles technique, it will use 10000 Needles, which will deal approximately 10,000 HP worth of damage to one target.

Appearances

Final Fantasy series

Cactuars made their first appearance in the 1994 game Final Fantasy VI, being known as Cactrots in the original English translation on the SNES. They can be encountered in the World of Ruin, leaving behind 10,000 Gil and 10 Magic Points, which is the most of any common enemy that can be faced. Since then, Cactuars have gone on to make regular appearances as enemies in both main series and spinoff games, as well as crossover appearances.

Dragon Quest X

Players could earn a Cactuar mask and a pose during a collaboration event with Square Enix's MMORPG Final Fantasy XI. During another collaboration event with Final Fantasy XIV, Cactuars could be faced as bosses in the Magic Labyrinth by collecting Cactuar Coins. This variety of Cactuar featured the Roman numerals XIV on their heads as a reference to the game.

Dragon Quest Tact

Cactuar appears as an A-rank monster of the ??? family during the first part of the limited War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius event alongside Bahamut on his banner. It can participate in Mont Leonis's Battle Road as a party member. Cactuars will be summoned by Shiva during the Large Battle after she has taken enough damage. Players can also visit Cactuar Village by collecting Cactuar Village Passes from event stages, where they can earn Cactuar Cards that can be redeemed for awakening materials in the Swap Shop.

Cactuar (サボテンダー Sabotendā)

Stats

Family		Rank		Role
???				Attack
Max Level		HP	MP	Move
120		837	303	4
Attack	Defense	Agility	Wisdom	Weight
300	528	445	141	35

Basic Skills

First		Second		Third
Tackle		Needle Bundle*		1000 Needles*

Awakening Skills

First	Second	Third
Cactuar Dash / Stats Up	Woosh Res +25 / Stats Up	1000 Needles Potency +5% / Stats Up Dodge Step: Raises evasion rate for 1 turn when attacking.
Fourth	Fifth
Zam Res +25 / Stats Up	1000 Needles Potency +5% / Stats Up Max HP +30

Leader Perks

First

Raises DEF of allies, including itself, by 10% in a 5x5 square around it.

Basic Perks

First	Second	Third
Max HP +20	DEF +15	1000 Needles Potency +2%

Perk Details

First

Cactuar Dash: Raises AGL and evasion rate for 3 turns at battle start.

Frizz Resistance *	Sizz Resistance *	Crack Resistance *	Woosh Resistance *
Normal	Normal	Very Weak	Half Res
Bang Resistance *	Zap Resistance *	Zam Resistance *	Snooze Resistance
Very Weak	Normal	Half REs	Half Res
Poison Resistance	Physical Lock Resistance	Spell Lock Resistance	Martial Lock Resistance
Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal
Breath Lock Resistance	Hobble Resistance *	Stun Resistance *	Dazzle Resistance
Normal	Normal	Super Weak	Half Res
Curse Resistance	Paralysis Resistance	Confusion Resistance	Charm Resistance
Super Weak	Immune	Normal	Normal

Gallery

• 

  A Cactuar in War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius

• 

  A player character in X posing like a Cactuar

• 

  Cactuar in Tact

• 

  Cactuar and Bahamut in Tact

External Links

• Cactuar article on the Final Fantasy Wiki
• News article about Dragon Quest X's Final Fantasy XI event on Siliconera.