Quickenings, or Mistknacks as they are called in the Japanese version, are the limit breaks of Final Fantasy XII. Unlike the limit breaks of other Final Fantasy games, Quickenings are seen to be more useful when chained with other Quickenings.

As written before, these special attacks are called Mistknacks in the Japanese version of the game. Personally I find that they make more sense being called that because it uses MP and MP is associated with mist. Also, there ought to be a reason to why miraculous things such as Vaan randomly evoking a tornado as he punches upwards or Balthier calling upon a massive wave of water. When in doubt, blame the Mist?

  LEVEL 1 - 闇と暗黒の衝撃 / Fulminating Darkness
The Japanese (yami to ankoku no shyougeki) meaning "Dark Crash" in English. Basch uses Darkness to attack the enemy. This is the first Mistknack attack you see in the game, as Basch performs it in the tutorial against the Imperial air craft.

  LEVEL 2 - 紛れ無き終焉 / Ruin Impendent
The Japanese (magire naki shyuuen) meaning "Utter Demise" in English. Basch punches outwords multiple times interchanging between his left and right fists, followed by by a switch in feet positions, and a final punch that triggers a graviational force that "shatters" the screen.
  LEVEL 3 - 百鬼・烈日の破邪 / Flame Purge
The Japanese (hyakki retsujitsu hajya) meaning "Scourging of 100 Demons" in English. Features Basch summoning twelve fiery swords to strike the enemy. You may notice at the begining of this Mistknack / Quickening that Basch's hand positions is Buddhist like. It is because 破邪 (hajya) is used in context of the Buddhist sense of "crushing evil".

First of all, to get a character to be able to use Mistknacks they must buy the license for it on the license board. Like with summons, once a character buys the license for a mistknack, that space will dissapear on everyone else but their license board. Mistknacks always cost 50LP to buy, and they tend to appear at the edge of the license board.

Mist Cartridges - The concept of using Mistknacks begins to get hard when more than one character start getting them. That's when you have to start understanding the purpose of Mist Cartridges when using these special attacks. Once a character gets a Mistknack of a summon they will have a orange dot beside their information on the menu screen. In total there are a maximum of three Mist Cartridges per character no matter what method you use to increase the amount of Cartridges. In addition, it is only through Mist Cartridges that a character's MP gauge grows. Typically through buying Mistknacks in the license board, the Catridges only increase by one. However, if you have a character buy a summon in the license board and the summon requires two Mist Cartridges when your character has none or one, two Mist Cartridges will be added in your total making it to a total of two or three.

When in a location where you can see your battle menu, beside the character's name, there is a HP and MP gauge. If a character has Mist Cartridges available the MP gauge will be orange. For example, if a character has a total of three Mist Cartridges, his or her full MP bar will be split into three sections. If they start to use magic, the third bar will turn blue signifying that it isn't full. Once the MP reaches full capacity again, the third bar will become orange again.

Chaining Mistknacks In General - Mistknacks are most effective when used in chains. When learnt how to chain them properly in the early stages of the game, bosses shouldn't take more than a few minutes to fight. To link Mistknacks, when a character is performing one you may notice that there is a table on the bottom right of the screen with a list of names. When a name is highlighted with either the triangle, square, or X button beside it, that means that that character can be the next in the chain of mistknacks. Simply press the button that that character is associated with in the table and they will be the next in the chain. If there isn't a name highlighted on the grid, by pressing R2 it will reshuffle the grid. By holding down R2 it will repeatedly reshuffle the grid and there will be flashes of names being highlighted. Since names appear in random order, if you do decide to hold down the R2 button, it is best to only mash one of the three possible buttons to choose from. Unforunately, Mistknacks are timed. Once all of it is used up, for instance you're too slow in figuring out who you want to be next in the chain, the Mistknack chain is over. The longer the chain is, the faster the time will elapse.

Conserving Mist Cartridges in Mistknacks - Mist Catridges and understanding how to use them is vital when it comes to doing Mistknacks. Once characters are able to do more than one Mistknack, there will be more than one orange circle beside the name of the Mistknack. Like in the menu, these orange circles denote Mist Catridges. A level three Mistknack will have three orange circles and use three cartridges, a level two Mistknack will have two orange circles and use two cartridges, and so forth.

For example, taking the situation that you are in the process of doing a Mistknack chain. You had Basch perform a level three Mistknack, you may notice that you can still use him in the chain. He can still do multiple Mistknacks regardless of their levels as long as his name is highlighted in the table. To preserve Mist Cartridges, concentrate on depleting the Catridges of only one or two characters. In the case of the Basch example, if he had just used a level 3 Mistknack he can still use Mistknacks of other levels as long as the table enables him to. If that is the case, use him whenever he's available in the table that way you don't trigger any Mistknacks of other characters.

By concentrating on just switching between two characters doing Mistknacks, by not triggering any Mistknacks of the third character's Mist Cartidges will be untouched. However, If you do trigger a Mistknack from the third character for the sake of elongating the chain, aim for one of the two characters you were concentrating on to be the next in the chain. Once the chain is complete, the third character, depending how much you used them and what level of Mistknack they have used, will have remaining Mist Catridges to start another Mistknack chain with.

Magic at the end of Mistknack Chains - Sometimes there is a finishing magic move that appears after a successful Mistknack Chain. The amount of a certain level of Mistknack you chain will determine which one of the eight magic finishing attacks you get at the end of the chain. The amount you of Mistknacks you chain will not influence the magic attack. For instance if you triggered two level 1 Mistknacks and one level 2 Mistknack you will not get a finishing move because you need a minimum of three level one or three level two Mistknacks to trigger a finishing move.

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