The daily Final Fantasy summon puzzle
The summon puzzle swaps the character roster for the creatures the series has been calling into battle since 1987: 91 of them, from Ifrit and Shiva through to Zodiark, Alexander, Knights of the Round and Gilgamesh. One is chosen each day, and every guess compares four attributes against it.
It plays differently from the character modes, and the reason is worth knowing. Final Fantasy is an anthology: characters almost never cross between games, so a character's source game is a near-unique fingerprint. Summons are the opposite: they are the series' shared furniture, recurring across dozens of entries. That makes the games count tile the most powerful clue on the board, and it is the one this mode is built around.
The four tiles
| Element | Fire, ice, lightning, earth, water, wind, holy, dark, or non-elemental. Summons with several affinities are filed under the dominant one. |
|---|---|
| Games count | Numeric. How many of the 42 games in the roster the summon appears in. An arrow points towards the answer, and the tile turns orange when you are within one. |
| Debut year | Numeric. Orange within three years, with an arrow. |
| Debut game | The first game where it can be summoned, which is not always the first game it appears in. |
What the numbers say
- Non-elemental is the single biggest group: 39 of 91 summons, well ahead of earth (10), wind (9), fire and holy (7 each). A red element tile on a non-elemental guess therefore eliminates a great deal; a green one eliminates almost nothing.
- Games count runs from 1 to 29, median 8. Opening on a mid-range recurring summon such as Shiva or Ramuh puts the arrow to work immediately.
- Two games dominate the debut tile: Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy VIII contribute 12 summons each, then Final Fantasy Tactics (9) and Final Fantasy III (8). The espers of VI and the Guardian Forces of VIII are why.
- Watch for the deep cuts. A games count of 1 means a summon exclusive to one title (the Ivalice Lucavi, or the Eidolons of a single spin-off), and that alone narrows the field to a handful.
Debut rules, and why they surprise people
A summon is filed under the first game in which you can actually summon it. That is a deliberate rule and it produces answers that look wrong until you check:
- Cait Sith debuts in Final Fantasy VI, as the esper Stray, not in Final Fantasy VII, where the character of the same name is a party member rather than a summon.
- Yojimbo debuts in Final Fantasy X, and Diabolos in Final Fantasy VIII.
- Deathgaze is a boss in Final Fantasy VI but only becomes summonable much later, so that later game is its debut.
Every debut in the set has been checked against its source rather than assumed. You can see the whole list on the summon index.
Common questions
Is the answer the same for everyone?
Yes, and it changes at 00:00 UTC. The summon puzzle uses its own draw, so it is never the same subject as the character puzzle on a given day.
Are Eidolons, Espers, Guardian Forces and Aeons all included?
Yes. The series renames its summons almost every entry (Espers in VI, Guardian Forces in VIII, Aeons in X, Eidolons in XIII, Primals in XIV), and they all sit in the same roster here.
How many guesses do I get?
Unlimited, as in every mode on the site.
The other daily puzzles
Prefer characters? Character compares seven attributes, Silhouette sharpens a blurred portrait, Quote redacts the speaker's name from a real line of dialogue, and Emoji hides someone behind five emoji. The how to play page covers all five.