Jade is a fantastic character that is powerful, physically, and once she joins your party, she should almost always be in it. She has two weapon types available to her, which are spears and claws. The better option is definitely spears, since there is so much available to her in that tree. That’s not to say that claws aren’t bad, it’s just that spears are so much better. It should also be mentioned here that Jade doesn’t learn any spells as she levels, so there is nothing to list there. There is one ability for Jade that learns as a story event, which becomes one of her better abilities in the game.

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Jade in Dragon Quest XI

Spears¶

Without a doubt, you will likely be keeping Jade on spears from the moment you get her and throughout the entirety of the game. They are definitely her best weapon, as she gains access to two crit-inducing moves, Thunder Thrust and Lightning Thrust. Both of these will become invaluable when grinding Metal Slimes during the course of the game. Party Pooper is another great ability, as it gives Jade a group-attacking skill, which is something she won’t have until later in the game. By far, her greatest skill is Multithrust, dealing four hits that will come to three times the damage of a normal attack. When used against a group of enemies, it will connect randomly, but it is deadly against a single target.

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Jade’s default skill trees

Claws¶

While Claws are inherently bad, they are outshined by Spears, so this is probably something you don’t want to choose as her weapon. One of the biggest problems with Claws is that they don’t have a high attack, but they are definitely nice if you want to boost your critical hit rate. Both Jade and Rab share the same Claw abilities, with the exception of one, which happens to be one of the better ones. Hawkeye Claw is nice, since it cannot miss at all, but the best Claw skill is definitely Hard Claw. This one hits three times to a single target, with some diminishing returns, but you will be doing around 3.6 times a normal attack. Also, Jade absorbs HP when using Claws, unlike Rab absorbing MP, so she will be able to fender for herself in battles somewhat.

Fisticuffs¶

At the point when you first get Jade, this skill tree isn’t all too alluring. The only potentially good skill is Vacuum Smash, which hits all enemies in a group for slightly more than a normal attack (it’s also wind elemental). Harvest Moon isn’t bad, as it does do more than normal damage to enemies, but the super high damage is only done to flying enemies. Once this tree expands, though, you will get one of Jade’s best attacks, Multifeet. This is seven hits across a group of enemies (seven hits on a single enemy), for slightly more damage than Multithrust. What makes it better than the other attack, is that it doesn’t have a lowered critical hit chance and costs 2 MP less than it.

Allure¶

The Allure tree is similar to the Fisticuffs one, where it’s not that good at the start, but opens up to have some key skills. It should be noted that all of the abilities in this tree rely on Jade’s Charm in order to deal more damage, so find some equipment to help boost that stat if you’re planning on using these. Pink Typhoon and Pink Tornado are the two highlights, with the latter being a stronger version of the former. They both hit all enemies on the field, and Pink Tornado only costs 2 MP more to deal more damage. So, once you learn Pink Tornado, there is no reason to ever use Pink Typhoon. The only problem with these is that they are wind elemental, so there are going to be some enemies that resist, which is where Femme Fatale comes in, as it hits all enemies without having an element attached.

Character Build¶

Jade is a physical powerhouse and she should almost always be on your team. When you first get her, your first priority should be to focus on Strength and setting her on her Spears tree. Multithrust is your ideal ability and will likely be used a lot, with Party Pooper her only multi-target attack, until her other trees open up. Once that happens, you can start going into her Fisticuffs tree and heading for Multifeet, which is going to do more damage over Multithrust. Continue focusing on Strength for now, but once you have Multifeet, you can begin inching your way up the Allure tree.

The goal of the Allure tree is to get three skills, Femme Fatale, Pink Typhoon and Pink Tornado. If there was a way to skip past Typhoon and go straight for Tornado, it would be described, but Tornado is a locked skill, so you will need the other. It is at this point you will want to start looking at ways to increase Jade’s Charm, too, since all of those Allure abilities function with Charm. That’s about all it for the abilities, but there’s one other thing that should be mentioned, as there is a special piece of equipment for Jade that only she can wear, the Belle’s Bow. This is a reward for completing Quest 18 and at +3, Jade will recover 6 MP per round. If you use the “duplication method” described in the red box on Arboria, then it’s possible to get two Belle’s Bows and have her regen 12 MP per round, making it a lot easier to spam her skills.