How do I get my characters to heal automatically?
Disclaimer: this information and explanation is based off from the original PS2 release. I am not aware of any changes that may have been made in the PS2 International Version (with the Zodiac Job System) or the PS4 Re-release
Your characters can Auto-heal by setting up your Gambits found in the main menu under Licenses
To set up the Auto-heal, you first you need to buy the Blue Ally Gambits from a store. Examples of such gambits are shown below:
Ally: [CHARACTER] are initially available. In the Initial Release on the PS2 other Ally: variants become available for purchase, at the earliest after getting trapped in the Nalbina Dungeons. the ones shown in the image however are available after escaping from Barheim Passage. on the Wikia page it says however
In the Zodiac versions, all gambits are available for purchase after the player gets trapped in the Nalbina Dungeons.
In the example above, Penelo will cast Cure on an Ally whose HP is Less than 70%. You'll also notice the other two Gambits above it. While there are Ally: Poison and Ally: KO Gambits, there is a hidden non redundancy system
Gambits contain certain hidden conditions to be intuitive and functional. Enemies immediately cease to be targets once they die, and the gambit mechanism will not revive a character who is not KO'd or recast a status buffer if the character still has it
As such, Phoenix Downs and MP for Poison will not be wasted by being used on allies who do not need it.
Gambits execute from the top down. When it is a player's turn, the first Gambit is evaluated and if its condition is true, then it will be executed for that turn and if not, the next gambit is evaluated, and so on. It is for this reason that if you want an ally to Heal instead of attack, as in the example shown above, your attacking Gambits need to be placed below your healing ones, otherwise if Foe: nearest visible is at the top, then during combat, it's very unlikely they will execute any other Gambit, as Foe: nearest visible is generally always true when in combat.
Finally, the Gambits need to be turned on (symbolized by the G icon) either by pressing X on the ON/OFF option next to the character's name in the Gambits Menu or by turning them on/off in the Combat Menu.
Individual Gambits can be turned on and off by pressing X on their individual ON/OFF options
Order of gambits matter
Think of gambits as "Order of Operation" whenever the character is about to make a move
Gambits are a targeted "if A, then X" conditional statement/expression; each gambit on the list is evaluated and the first gambit that has a true, actionable condition, will be executed. Each time the character gets a new turn the list is reevaluated, starting with the first gambit.
Functionality
Gambits are composed of a target, a condition and an action to be performed on the target, only if the condition is true. If the condition is not true, the next gambit in the list is checked, and so on
...
There are several gambits in the game. Initially, the party starts with very few gambits to work with, but as the game progresses, the party can find or buy more.
Lets look at this type of examples of
- Ally: 70% < HP => Cure
- Foe: Party Leader's Target => Attack
and
- Foe: Party Leader's Target => Attack
- Ally: 70% < HP => Cure
These two gambit setups look very similar, but the order is very important.
Example 1: Every turn it will evaluate any ally whose HP is less than 70%, heal the ally, and continue this until the condition is no longer met. Once the condition is not true, it goes onto the second gambit of attacking the nearest enemy.
Example 2: Every turn it will locate the nearest target in range and attack the enemy. Every turn, it evaluates the gambits, with attacking the nearest target first. Once this condition is no longer true, meaning all enemies have been killed, then it goes onto healing your allies with <70% HP