Final Fantasy X: Overdrives Guide

Overdrives are Final Fantasy X’s version of Limit Breaks. It allows a character to use a special attack that’s unique to them. Overdrives have a wide variety of effects depending on the character, from powerful attacks to buffing your party. Some bosses within the game even have their own Overdrives.

How to Access Your Overdrive

In battle, every character in your party will have a bar under their name and stats, showing how close you are to being able to execute the Overdrive. How you fill the bar depends on how you set your Overdrive Mode (see Overdrive Modes below). Once your bar is filled, press left on the menu, and the character’s Overdrive will be the only option (for example, Tidus will show Swordplay to select). Each character has their own unique way of executing their Overdrive properly.

overdrive bars — *Rikku has half of her Overdrive bar filled, while Tidus has a full bar.*

Overdrive Modes

A character’s Overdrive Mode determines how the character’s Overdrive bar will fill.

By default, every character starts in Stoic mode, which requires them to take damage to fill their bar.
In order to learn a new mode, you must fulfill the condition for it a certain number of times.

Once a new mode is learned, you can choose your Overdrive Mode in the Overdrive menu. Each character must learn these modes individually, and each character has their own conditions to learn each mode.

Name	Fill Condition	Turns for Tidus	Turns for Yuna	Turns for Wakka	Turns for Lulu	Turns for Kimahri	Turns for Auron	Turn for Rikku
Stoic	Fills when the character takes damage.	Default	Default	Default	Default	Default	Default	Default
Warrior	Fills when the character damages an enemy. Does not apply to items and Overdrives.	150	200	160	300	120	100	140
Comrade	Fills when an ally takes damage.	300	240	100	100	100	220	100
Healer	Fills when healing an ally.	80	60	110	170	100	200	70
Tactician	Fills when inflicting a status effect to an enemy.	75	100	80	75	60	110	90
Victim	Fills when inflicted with a status effect.	120	100	110	130	100	160	125
Dancer	Fills when evading an attack.	250	200	200	300	130	200	200
Avenger	Fills when an enemy KOs an ally.	100	80	100	150	100	120	90
Slayer	Fills when the character kills an enemy.	100	110	90	130	120	80	100
Hero	Fills when the character kills an enemy with at least 10,000 HP, or at least 20x more HP than the estimated damage.	50	50	50	70	45	40	50
Rook	Fills when the character reduces or nullifies damage with buffs (such as Shell).	120	110	120	120	120	120	120
Victor	Fills when winning a battle and being an active member.	120	150	160	200	120	200	140
Coward	Fills when escaping from battle.	600	900	400	980	700	1000	450
Ally	Fills at the start of the character’s turn.	600	500	350	480	300	450	320
Sufferer	Fills at the start of the character’s turn if inflicted with a status effect.	100	80	100	110	130	120	90
Daredevil	Fills at the start of the character’s turn if they’re at critical HP.	170	90	140	150	200	260	110
Loaner	Fills at the start of the character’s turn if fighting alone.	60	180	110	45	90	35	170

Characters’ Overdrives

Each character has their own unique set of Overdrive skills. They all have a different way of executing their Overdrives and learning new ones. Below are short summaries of each of the characters’ Overdrives, where you can find links to more in depth guides for them.

Tidus

Tidus’s Overdrive is Swordplay. All of them do damage to either a single target or the enemy party, and he learns them by using the Swordplays he already knows a certain amount of times.

Yuna

Yuna’s Overdrive is Grand Summon. When used, she will summon a chosen Aeon with a full Overdrive bar. Yuna and all of her Aeons have only one Overdrive that they already know by default. The only exceptions are Valefor, who has a secret second Overdrive you can find, and Yojimbo, who has no Overdrives at all.

Wakka

Wakka’s Overdrives are Slots. Depending on which Slots you use, it can be used to deal damage, inflict negative status effects, or a combination of both. He can learn new Slots through playing Blitzball.

Lulu

Lulu’s Overdrive is Fury. When used, she will cast the selected Black Magic spell a certain number of times, depending on how well the Overdrive is executed. She will automatically learn a new Fury when she learns the corresponding Black Magic spell in her Sphere Grid.

Kimahri

Kimahri’s Overdrive is Ronso Rage. There are a variety of possible effects depending on which Ronso Rage is used, from damaging enemies, to buffing your party. He learns new Ronso Rages by using Lancet on various enemies found throughout the game.

Auron

Auron’s Overdrive is Bushido. They all do damage to either a single target or the enemy party, and when executed properly, can add an additional effect. He learns new Bushido skills by gathering Jecht Spheres scattered throughout Spira.

Rikku

Rikku’s Overdrive is Mix. When used, she will combine two selected items to create one of many different possible effects. Rikku doesn’t need to learn her various Mixes, but you must have the required items, and figure out which combination of them you need for the desired effect.