Final Fantasy Tactics Poaching Guide

A useful battle feature in Final Fantasy Tactics that is sometimes overlooked is the ability to recycle killed monsters into purchasable items. You can start poaching monsters as soon as you unlock the Poach ability, which can be very early in the game, as it doesn't cost much and comes from Thief, which you'll surely unlock before Chapter 1 is complete. In order to use the ability, all you need to do is kill a monster with a unit who has the ability equipped; once you do, that monster will instantly vanish from the battlefield (meaning, doing this will block you from collecting its crystal or treasure drop), and the item poached will be sent to the shop inventory.

Each monster has a common and a rare item as part of its poach setup. It appears that the chance of getting the rare item is around one in eight, but unfortunately and predictably, those are the most exciting items to get. Your best chance of being able to poach in bulk is to recruit and breed the monsters you want, but even that is potentially a long grind due to the complexities of both getting and breeding monsters.

If you can't find the shop to collect your goodies, it's one of two things. First, the shops won't even appear in towns until Chapter 3, but any items you collected before then will be available once you get there. The second reason is that there aren't very many shops; you'll find them only in trade-style settlements, meaning Dorter, Warjilis, and Sal Ghidos.

Here's a list of all of the poachable items you can get from monsters:

Enemy	Common Item	Rare Item
Ahriman	Fuma Shuriken	Air Knife
Behemoth	Guardian Bracelet	Proudhide Bag
Behemoth King	Envoûtement	Artemis Bow
Black Chocobo	Eye Drops	X-Potion
Black Goblin	High Potion	Antidote
Blue Dragon	Cashmere	Dragon Rod
Bomb	Flameburst Bomb	Flame Rod
Bonesnatch	High Potion	Partisan
Chocobo	Phoenix Down	High Potion
Cockatrice	Gold Needle	Featherweave Cloak
Coeurl	Gold Needle	Germinas Boots
Dark Behemoth	Wizard's Rod	Stoneshooter
Dragon	Jade Armlet	Hardscale Bag
Dryad	Eye Drops	Healing Staff
Elder Treant	Protect Ring	Defender
Exploder	Spark Bomb	Flame Shield
Floating Eye	Shuriken	Platinum Dagger
Ghast	High Potion	Main Gauche
Ghoul	Ether	Kunai
Gobbledygook	Mage Masher	Ancient Sword
Goblin	Potion	High Potion
Greater Malboro	Elixir	Omnilex
Greater Hydra	Septième Sens	Rubber Suit
Grenade	Snowmelt Bomb	Flail of Flame
Hydra	Blood Sword	Scorpion Tail
Jura Aevis	Potion	Rubber Boots
Malboro	Platinum Dagger	Ice Shield
Mindflayer	High Ether	Vampire Cape
Minotaur	Coral Sword	Slasher
Ochu	Nu Khai Armband	Chameleon Robe
Pig	Maiden's Kiss	Hairband
Piscodaemon	Echo Herbs	High Potion
Plague Horror	Yagyu Darkrood	Zwill Straightblade
Red Chocobo	Remedy	Barrette
Red Dragon	Sortilège	Dragon Whisker
Red Panther	Antidote	Battle Boots
Revenant	High Ether	Mythril Gun
Sekhret	Holy Lance	Ivory Pole
Skeletal Fiend	Mage's Cloak	Elven Cloak
Skeleton	Holy Water	Ether
Squidraken	Shoulder Cape	Sleep Blade
Steelhawk	Phoenix Down	Hunting Crossbow
Swine	Chantage	Nagnarok
Tiamat	Wyrmweave Silk	Whale Whisker
Treant	Golden Staff	Faerie Harp
Vampire Cat	Holy Water	Catskin Bag
Wild Boar	Ribbon	Fallingstar Bag
Wisenkin	Battle Axe	Giant's Axe