ENEMY SKILL MATERIA

This is one great materia. It's different in that it doesn't grow with AP. Instead, it gains a star every time you learn an opponent's technique. There's only a few of these sitting around, so grab 'em when you find 'em. They all start "empty", so keep them equipped so you can learn new skill all the time (Your characters don't learn the skills, the materia does). However, this learning does not translate to all your E-Skill materia. You cannot learn skills if the materia isn't equipped, so keep it handy! You "Learn" skills when -gulp- they're used on your characters! Yuppers, that means you'll have to suffer to get these special attacks. Most of them are worth it.

Wherever you see this symbol on the site, that means the enemy being talked about has an ENEMY SKILL for you to learn!

There are 24 ENEMY SKILLS you can learn. I've put down the first three you can learn (there's actually four here right now, but one of them you can't get cuz it's too powerful!) and will add to this list as time goes on...

MATRA MAGIC (Star 11)

INFO: MP COST: 8. All enemies are hit with a barrage of rockets. Really great early on and in the middle of the game, but it starts to lose it's effectiveness near the end.
Get this from the Custom Sweepers in the little patch of life-less area just South East of KALM. They'll use it on you when you've brought their health down with a dose of BOLT. (Hey, you can also STEAL a weapon for Barret from these guys. Talk about 2-for-1!)

L4 SUICIDE (STAR 2)
INFO: MP COST: 10. All enemies who's level is a multiple of 4 gets smacked around harsh. This E-Skill reduces the enemies HP to 1, and puts them in MINI. Remember the enemies level must be 4, 8, 12, 16, etc for this to work.
You can get this skill from the MU's (Little Gopher-dudes by the Chocobo Farm). Find them in the dark areas of the grass. WARNING: These guys are mega tough, to boot and if YOUR guys have a level that's a multiple of 4... well, buh bye!

BETA (Star 15)
INFO: MP COST: 35
WOW! You can do over 1000 damage to all enemies with this one... if you can get it without DYING. First, you have to fight the MIDGAR ZOLEM (The shadow snake in the swamp). Beat him down and stay alive, and when he's near death, he'll use this on you. The problem is that you'll have to come back later, but not too much later. Once your guys HP gets over 1200, you can try and head back here and get it. It's worth it, and will continue to be until your guys reach about level 40.

Flame thrower (Star 9)
INFO: MP COST: 10. This is kinda hard to judge effective-ness wise. Before you get FIRE2, this is the best thing going for ya. However, it only hits one enemy (you can't "ALL" effect the E-Skills), but it DOES cost less than FIRE2. Well, NEway, you can get these early on from the little yellow dragons in the MYTHRIL MINES. There's roughly 5 or 6 creatures throughout the game with this attack, so gettin it for your new E-Skill materias won't be tough.

ABOVE: Get Flame-thrower from these guys

LASER (Star 10)
INFO: MP COST: 16. Reduces an enemy's HP by HALF! Normally that'd be a cool deal, but most enemies you'd want to use this on (like bosses) are immune, so bleh.
Get from the Death Claws in Corel prison, and the Dark Dragons in the Northern cave have this ability, too.

There's more, but I don't wanna get too far ahead of myself. Like I said above, I'll let you know what enemies have E-Skills, and I'll update this page when appropriate.