When a character equips a weapon he/she may learn certain abilities that the weapon has to offer. Some characters may learn some abilities from a weapon others may learn different ones. For example Vivi can learn a fire spell from a piece of equipment while Zidane can't. To see the list of equipment go to the camp menu, then equip, then select which character, then equip, then select what part of the body you want to equip. Then select it, then it will give you a list of equipment that that character can equip and when selected the highlighted moves are the ones that he/she can learn. There is a bar next to the ability which is amount of ability points (ap) needed, and amount earned so far. Once it is learned the bar is replaced by 4 stars. When equipped with a piece of equipment that a character has yet to learn an ability from, after battle you receive a certain amount of ability points that contribute to the amount needed to learn an ability. Points are not divided up amongst your abilities.

Types of abilities

There are three different kinds of abilities: Support (that you can turn on and off), Magic Spells (which can be used in or out of battle depending on which and what kind of spell), and battle (which are like magic but can only be used in battle. To see your abilities that you have learned or have equipped due to weapon equip go to camp menu then ability. Then there are two things USE and EQUIP. Only some spells can be used in USE (like cure), and to equip support abilities go to equip. There is a list with a crystal with amount of them needed. Amount of crystals increases with levels. And there is a list of total crystals for that character on this screen and next to there stats on the camp menu