Legendary Spirits



The Legendary Spirits (伝説のスピリット Densetsu no Supiritto), or Spirits (スピリット/ Supiritto) for short, are a set of twenty ancient artifacts that are used to evolve into Hybrid Digimon. Each contains the sealed power of a member of the Warrior Ten, a group of ten Ultimate Digimon who saved the Digital World in its distant past. The Spirits grant their respective Warrior's power to their users.

=Overview=

Origin
The Legendary Spirits are remnants of the Warrior Ten, created in the aftermath of their victory over Lucemon. Although all ten of them died in the battle, they left behind the Spirits&mdash;artifacts which embody both their souls and their power &mdash; in various places around the Digital World, to someday be inherited and used in the event that the Digital World comes under threat from another menace.

Properties
When a human fuses with a Spirit, they form a "new species": Hybrid Digimon. Both humans and Digimon are capable of using the Spirits.

Each Spirit is associated with one of ten elemental powers corresponding to the element of its member of the Warrior Ten. There are two Spirits for each element:


 * a Human Spirit, or Spirit H , which creates Human Form Hybrid Digimon; and
 * a Beast Spirit, or Spirit B , which creates Beast Form Hybrid Digimon.

In certain circumstances, multiple Spirits can be combined to create more powerful Hybrid Digimon: using both Spirits of the same element creates Fusion Form Hybrid Digimon such as Raihimon, and using ten Spirits in specific combinations creates Transcendent Form Hybrid Digimon such as Kaiser Greymon. The union of all twenty Spirits creates the Ultimate Digimon Susanoomon.

It is possible for Spirits to be corrupted into alternate, sinister forms that produce different Hybrid Digimon. The only current corrupted Spirits are the Corrupted Human Spirit of Darkness and the Corrupted Beast Spirit of Darkness.

Design & Analysis
The Spirit items themselves resemble the Hybrid Digimon that they create in some way, such as being stored arrangements of their armor or body. Every Spirit sits on a hexagonal base, which has the word "SPIRIT" inscribed on it in Digimoji repeating six times in a pattern around its edge.

The elemental attributes of the Spirits are each represented by a symbol that is a stylized/simplified version of the respective for that element. Both the Spirits and their respective Hybrid Digimon often have the respective element's symbol inscribed somewhere on them. In addition, two Digimon created using multiple Spirits have other symbols:


 * A symbol based on the kanji ("flame"), instead of the usual  ("fire" or "flame") symbol, is inscribed on Kaiser Greymon's breastplate
 * A symbol based on the kanji ("heaven") is inscribed on Susanoomon's headgear

The concept of the ten elements embodied by the Spirits and their related Digimon follows the common trope of elemental powers widely seen in modern fiction, as well as historical philosophical concepts of elements which comprise or underpin reality, such as the Japanese ', the European and Indian, and the Chinese '. In Digimon Frontier, the groups of Spirits that were originally held by members of the Three Archangels, as noted in "Endless Death Match! The Prelude of Lucemon's Revival", may be interpreted as references to particular elemental schemes or cultural perceptions:


 * Four of the five elements whose Spirits Cherubimon had&mdash;Water, Wood, Metal, Earth, and Darkness&mdash;match the phases of the Wuxing, differing only in that Cherubimon had the Spirits of Darkness instead of the Spirits of Fire.
 * The three elements whose Spirits Ofanimon had&mdash;Fire, Ice and Thunder&mdash;match a common combination of elemental powers or magic in modern Japanese popular media, such as .

Toy and Video Game-only Spirits
=Appearances=

The Legendary Spirits, which were born from the same data as the Digital World itself, were created in the distant past after the Warrior Ten's final battle with Lucemon. The Warrior Ten released the Spirits and entrusted them to the Three Archangels:
 * Seraphimon possessed the Spirits of two elements: Light and Wind
 * Ofanimon possessed the Spirits of three elements: Fire, Ice, and Thunder
 * Cherubimon possessed the Spirits of five elements: Darkness, Earth, Wood, Steel, and Water

After Lucemon corrupted him, Cherubimon bonded four of his five Spirits to Digimon to create the Evil Warriors, and corrupted the Spirits of Darkness and bonded them to Kimura Kouichi's to create Duskmon. However, the Beast Spirit of Water does not appear to have been in his possession at this point, as Ranamon only later finds it in a shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean.

Seraphimon and Ofanimon's Spirits were all hidden to protect them from Cherubimon. When she brings the Chosen Children into the Digital World, Ofanimon instructs them to search for and collect the remaining Spirits, so that they can use them to Spirit Evolve and resist Cherubimon. When not in use, the Spirits that they have collected are stored in their D-Scanners.

A Hybrid Digimon who also possesses the other Spirit of their respective element can undergo Slide Evolution to transform into that Spirit's respective Hybrid Digimon at any time. Both the Chosen Children and the Evil Warriors do this.

A recurring theme with the Beast Spirits is that, unlike the Human Spirits, they are very difficult to control. Kanbara Takuya, Minamoto Kouji, Ranamon and Duskmon are all overwhelmed by their Beast Spirits and run wild when they first obtain them. Himi Tomoki and Shibayama Junpei also have some difficulty, but Orimoto Izumi and Kouichi do not.

By the time that they reach the Rose Morning Star, the Chosen Children's collection of the Spirits is as follows:



The ability to use more than one Spirit at a time requires the power of one of the Three Archangels. During their battles inside Sephirothmon, Seraphimon's Digitama gives power to Takuya and Kouji's D-Scanners to allow them to Double Spirit Evolve using both the Spirits of their respective elements.

In their confrontation with Cherubimon at the Rose Morning Star, Ofanimon upgrades Takuya and Kouji's D-Scanners again to transform them into New D-Scanners, allowing them to Hyper Spirit Evolve using ten Spirits each. When they gain this ability, the group reorganizes their collected Spirits to permanently give the Spirits of Earth and Wood to Takuya, and the Spirits of Water and Steel to Kouji, so that they can be used for their respective Hyper Spirit Evolutions.

In the group's second battle with Lucemon in the Dark Area, Kouichi gives the Spirits of Darkness back to Kouji when he is killed by Lucemon. The reaction of Kouji's Spirits of Light and the Spirits of Darkness triggers Kouji and Takuya's Ancient Spirit Evolution into Susanoomon using all twenty Spirits.

In the final battle against Lucemon, the Warrior Ten are reborn as the ten Human Form Hybrids as entities in their own right, who protect and encourage the Chosen Children. As a side effect of the powerful bond established between the Spirits and Chosen Children from all of their time spent traveling together and Spirit Evolving, the Warrior Ten have inherited some of the traits of the Chosen Children (for instance, Fairimon now speaks Italian, like Izumi), and there is some sort of link between each Chosen Child-Warrior pair (e.g. Löwemon's time spent with Kouichi allows him to sense that Kouichi is still alive in the Real World).

Kanbara Takuya uses the Spirits of Fire to become Aldamon for the fight against Quartzmon's forces. Near the end of the battle, Himi Tomoki sends the rest of the Spirits to Takuya so that he can become Susanoomon by himself.

In the "Frontier Generation" special, Kanbara Takuya and Minamoto Kouji use their Human Spirits to defeat a Megadramon, following the same Spirit Evolution mechanics as in Digimon Frontier. Takuya also uses his Beast Spirit of Fire to Slide Evolve into Vritramon when fighting Metamormon with Yagami Taichi and Zeromaru.

Five Spirits&mdash;the Human Spirits of Fire, Light, Ice, Wind and Thunder&mdash; are equippable items which can be obtained by inputting their respective codes into the meat machine. When equipped onto a compatible Child Digimon, the next time that the Digimon enters a battle, it will evolve into the matching Hybrid Digimon for its duration.

Spirits are single-use only, and after the battle in which they are used, they disappear. The same Spirit can be freely re-acquired from the meat machine, and the player may stockpile multiples of the same Spirits.

The four Spirits of Fire and Light appear as items that, once obtained, allow compatible Digimon to evolve into the respective Digimon (Agnimon, Wolfmon, Vritramon, Garummon) as long as they also meet the other evolution criteria. The item is not consumed in the evolution, so the Digimon can be evolved into any number of times. Kaiser Greymon, Magna Garurumon, and Susanoomon also appear in the game, but their evolution criteria do not involve the Spirits at all aside from the former two evolving only from Vritramon and Garummon.

In compilations of both Cyber Sleuth games&mdash;the Japanese Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 versions of Hacker's Memory, and the western Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth Complete Edition&mdash;any of the Digimon evolved using the Spirit items can be transferred back to Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth after both games have been cleared, but the Spirits are not made available in Cyber Sleuth so these Digimon cannot be evolved into natively there.

The Spirits are collectible items which the player's party of DigiDestined (Chosen Children) may use in battles to "Spirit On" into their respective Hybrid Digimon. In order to use a Spirit, the matching DigiDestined must currently be present in the party, and the player must have enough Spirits Power points to afford to use the Hybrid Digimon's attacks.

Each Spirit comes with a set of stat bonuses which are added to the respective DigiDestined's own base stats, meaning that unlike regular Digimon, Hybrid Digimon stats scale as the game progresses and the player levels up.

The Spirits available depend on the device's firmware version:


 * Only the ten Human and Beast Spirits of Fire, Light, Ice, Wind and Thunder are available in firmware revision A.
 * Revision B adds the true Human and Beast Spirits of Darkness.
 * Revision C adds:
 * the Human and Beast Spirits of Earth, Water, Wood, and Gold (Steel); unlike in Digimon Frontier or any other Digimon media, they may respectively be used by J.P. (Shibayama Junpei), Zoe (Orimoto Izumi), Tommy (Himi Tomoki) and Koichi (Kimura Kouichi) just like their usual Spirits
 * the "Extra" (Z) Spirits for KaiserGreymon (KaiserGreymon) and MagnaGarurumon (Magna Garurumon)
 * the ability to become "Combo" (Fusion Form) Hybrids and Susanomon (Susanoomon), albeit not represented with Spirits unlike the Japanese D-Scanners

In the Quest mode, the player's goal is to collect Spirits by defeating the Hybrid bosses of each Area. They begin with one of five Human Spirits, chosen based on which Trailmon they selected to board at the beginning of the mode. Any Spirits that the player has obtained in Quest Mode may also be used for the "V.S. Spirit" multiplayer battle mode.

In the Database, a Human Form, Beast Form or Extra (Transcendent) Form Hybrid Digimon's corresponding Spirit may also be viewed by selecting the "Spirit" option in the Digimon's Digivolve (Evolution) menu.

All of the Legendary Spirits, including the corrupted forms of the Spirits of Darkness, have one card each in the Digital Monster Card Game. The Human Spirits (excluding the true Human Spirit of Darkness but including the corrupted version) were all introduced in Starter Ver. 7, the Beast Spirits (again, excluding the true Beast Spirit of Darkness but including the corrupted version) were introduced in Expansion Kit S, and the true forms of the Spirits of Darkness were introduced in Booster 17.

The Spirits' cards are all Option Cards of the Item Category, and are used as part of the Appearance Requirements of many (but not all) cards featuring Human Form and Beast Form Hybrid Digimon. The Appearance process for these Hybrids is labeled "Spirit Evolution", and requires that the Spirit card be played in the player's Support Box to evolve a Digimon of an appropriate level (Level IV/Adult for Human Form Hybrids, and Perfect for Beast Form Hybrids). The Spirit remains in the Support Box until the resulting Digimon is removed from play. In addition to the Appearance Requirements use, each Spirit card also confers a number of additional effects onto the Digimon that used it to Spirit Evolve. Unrelated to Hybrid Digimon, some Human Spirits have an additional effect that allows them to substitute for certain Digimental cards.

Spirit cards are not used to evolve into Fusion Form or Transcendent Form Hybrid Digimon. These Digimon all have other Evolution/Fusion/Appearance Requirements instead.

In the Digital Monster Card Game, all Spirits are given formulaic, abbreviated names: Human Spirits are "Spirit of (x) H" and Beast Spirits are "Spirit of (x) B". Because the Corrupted Spirits of Darkness were released first, they occupy the formulaic H and B initials for Darkness, so the two true Spirits are instead called "Spirit of Darkness L" and "Spirit of Darkness K", taking their initials from the respective Digimon that they create, Löwemon and Kaiser Leomon.

=Additional Information=