Final Fantasy VI/Bugs and Glitches

Final Fantasy VI -> Bugs and Glitches

Sketch
Be very careful when using Relm's sketch ability in the U.S. version of the game. If it fails on some enemies an uninitialized pointer will cause a bug and mess with the game data, possibly even corrupting save files. If you're using an emulator it's easy enough to avoid this using savestates, or just save often. Since Relm is not required for any sequence in the game except briefly being in your party when exiting Esper mountain some players choose to not bother using her partially for this reason.

Returning to the World of Balance
Early versions of the cartridges for this game featured a bug by which it was possible to return to the world of balance from the world of ruin. In the walkway above the Opera House, where Ultros pushed off the 4 ton weight there are a number of rats running around the scaffolding. If the party lost to them in the world of ruin they would be returned to the Opera House in the world of balance just as if they had failed to prevent Ultros from dropping the weight. After performing this glitch however, the only way to return to the World of Ruin was to ride Figaro Castle underground, and there would be no airship in the World of Ruin.

Evade
Due to errors in programming, the Evade stat is totally useless. Magic Evade affects both Evade and Magic Evade. As a result, the Blind status effect has no effect on reducing the accuracy of a physical attack, and Beads have absolutely no use at all. In addition, while certain statuses (Haste, Slow, Life 3, Poison, Seizure, Near Fatal are a few examples) are meant to affect hit rates, they're not in use.

Vanish+Doom/X-Zone
This is probably the most well-known and most useful out of any of the bugs in the game. The trick comes in realizing that any creature with the "vanish" status has very poor magic defense and it is affected by virtually all spells, including Doom and X-Zone which offer instant kills. Many powerful enemies including most of the bosses in the game can be instantly killed by casting vanish on them and then casting Doom or X-Zone. Doom only affects one enemy, whereas X-Zone affects all enemies. The Vanish and Doom spells can be learned in the world of balance after finishing the magitek factory. The X-Zone spell can be learned in the world of ruin after fighting Phunbaba for the first time.

The best known use for the trick is just using X-Zone to instantly defeat Wrexsoul in Cyan's Sidequest, since it will kill both SoulSavers (no Vanish necessary), and end the battle (The SoulSavers regenerate themselves immediately after they're slain). In general most bosses can be easily defeated by casting vanish on them then doom or x-zone, although this would rob most of the enjoyment of playing the game. Also, If you use Vanish and X-zone on Doom Gaze, it won't drop you the Bahamut Esper (However, if you use Doom after Vanish, you will still obtain your undeserved Esper).

Technical Details of how Vanish/Doom works: Certain enemies (such as most bosses) has a special bit that determines whether they can be hit by Instant-Death spells or not. Most Instant-death spells (as well as Dischord and gravity based spells such as Demi, Shimsham, Sonic Boom, Grav Bomb) automatically misses if this bit is set. However, when the game determines whether a spell hits or not, it checks for Vanish first. Therefore, when you Vanish an enemy then cast a spell, it will always hit no matter what. NOTE: Most enemies also have protection from certain statuses, meaning you can't inflict the status on the enemy (For example, Vargas is protected from Poison status, meaning you can't set Poison on him, ever). Therefore, if you use, say, Mute, after vanishing the enemy, the spell WILL hit, but will do nothing because the enemy can't be muted. This is evident if you use Vanish+Imp on an Imp-protected enemy, as the spell will hit and change the enemy's graphic to that of an imp, but the enemy will act as if it's not Imped because Imp isn't actually set on the enemy.