Final Fantasy V

I started playing this a few days ago (for the second time, on my 3DS). I didn't appreciate it as much at first, but now that I'm not depending on high stats, it is absolutely a blast to play, Outside grinding the necessary materials for Mix (one of the great abilities in the game), and for leveling up the Jobs themselves.

I'm currently at Lv 20 (wanted to go at my own pace and figure out how to beat most story bosses on my own prior to tackling true low level runs). The game gives you plenty of tools to deal high damage nonetheless via Mix (raising your in-battle level *pretty much most damage formulas use Level in some way, so that's a pretty big deal*, changing enemy natures for easy weakness hitting, etc.), Combine (elemental cannons can hit weaknesses, some deal double damage to humans/dragons, fixed damage via Needle Cannon *3000 damage to all enemies*), Finishers (RNG attack that may score a crit hit, fixed 9999 damage, or miss), Black Magic and Summons have been good at dealing damage to targets, Spellblade is good at hitting elemental weaknesses and shines better when used with Rapid-Fire and two swords (you have to give up a shield though, which means less evasion), Jump and Hide avoiding attacks that otherwise can't be negated, setting up Lv 5 Death instant kills via using Lv 2 Old and timing it correctly, or raising an enemy's effective level to 255 with Mix (provided that the enemy doesn't have Reflect on, or at the very least, that the status can be removed permanently via dispel), and a lot of other neat stuff.

If you're going to play this, I recommend getting the US GBA version. I do not recommend getting the EU version since the encounter glitch got fixed there, which means you can't force Movers to appear whenever you want (by far the best way to earn Ability Points and money, and they give no experience to boot, which is nice if you're trying to stay at a low level).

Beat the postgame bosses. They were not too difficult, mostly because I could negate almost every attack they used. But two of them could still make you lose control of the fight if you're not careful. Finished the game at Lv 20.

Honestly, making use of all the useful mechanics in this game was the most fun experience I've ever had with a Final Fantasy title. If you have not played the game yet, I seriously suggest you to do so when you have some free time and a sudden urgue to play a good turn based RPG.

The only two gripes I have with this game are the following:

1. Can't blame the devs for this, but low level runs (true low level runs mind you, not what I did) are a pain, because you must always flee from optional encounters, which is simply not entertaining at all, and becomes highly tedious in the long run. Also, sadly, one tower in the game doesn't let you run away from random battles, meaning that low level runners will never be able to go there. Which is unfortunate, because the summon is pretty useful, and enemies have valuable items for stealing.

2. The auto-optimize equipment system. Much like the above point, this one becomes tedious in the long run. The game lets you to choose between letting it equip the 'best' gear for you, or equip them yourself. The former isn't always beneficial, because it chooses the best gear based on stats. But what if I don't need the sword with the best offensive stat? What if I want the harp that deals a whopping x8 damage to dragons and the undead? What if I want to use a shield instead of two swords? What if I want a Ribbon that protects me against most status effects? What if I want an armor that grants me elemental immunity? What if I want an accessory that lets me have Haste or Reflect at the start of the fight? And so on. Since it does so every single time you change a Job or Ability, and the fact that the game encourages you to mix and match both of those frequently, you'll be dealing with this a lot.

Other than that, great game.

Did some digging, might be neat to get this game and a GBA player down the line for my Gamecube (apparently the GBA and GBA player are region-free).

I forgot that peripheral existed. That means there is a way to play the best version of FFV on a TV.

Not sure how that works, but if you don't have to depend on batteries to play this game, great.

No need for batteries with the GB adapter for the GC. It’s fantastic and definitely with the pickup. It has options to change the color palettes for the original GB games too and border selections. This thing is permanently attached to one of my GCs. It has Mega Man Zero sticking out of it now.

It’s awesome to see you’re getting a lot out of FFV, though Phoenix. I definitely plan to go back to this one someday, too.

Two people have suggested me to look into participating in the Four Job Fiesta. Not sure if I'd have fun playing the game with my options being highly limited, and I think some choices might force me to level grind to brute force my way through some sections.

I'm attempting to do a true low level run. As I said earlier, I finished the game with a Lv 20 party. This time, I'll try to do so with two characters at Lv 1, one at Lv 2, and one at Lv 4. There are some unavoidable EXP sources in the game, so the character who joins you at Lv 3 has to level up once.

Note that it's possible to re-arrange the EXP gains so you have a 2/2/2/3 party, instead of a 1/1/2/4 one. But I'll stick with the latter. Pretty sure either route is acceptable.

Pretty interesting to see that 2 status effects are all it takes to shut down an endgame boss (I made this vid):

Found out that there's a way to know when to use Lv 5 Death after using Old or Lv 2 Old (for those who don't know, Old reduced an enemy's Level over time, but the thing is, their levels aren't visible to the player *unless you use Libra, but by the time you use that, the enemy will most likely have a lower level the second after you check it*).

The trick is pretty simple. Suppose that an enemy has a Level of 34. Set the battle speed to 5 in the configuration menu. Whenever your character uses Old or Lv 2 Old (the latter overrides immunity, as does Lv 5 Death ignoring Death immunity), pay close attention to the ATB bar of the character who just used either version of Old. When the bar 'tics' 4 times, inmediately open the Blue Magic menu and select Lv 5 Death.

For each 'tic', substract one level from the enemy. In the above example, the enemy had a Level of 34, so you have to wait for the ATB bar to tic 4 times to use Lv 5 Death.

I came across people saying that you should count actual seconds to do this, but I did that myself, and it didn't work.

Here's a vid showcasing how it works against a Lv 68 boss:

I'd like to try this game. @Phoenix Wright , could you explain the exact difference between Active Mode and Wait Mode. Which one should I choose? And what about the battle speed setting? I read in one of your posts that there are some timed inputs so I should choose well, I think.

Wait Mode lets you go into the Time magic command (for example) and navigate through its menu, without having to worry about the enemy getting a turn (it can't act *even its ATB bar freezes* until you finish selecting the spell you want to use). Active Mode is the opposite, the enemy will be able to get its turns and act regardless of what you're doing.

Battle Speed delays everyone's turns (even your party member's) for a few moments (the higher the battle speed, the more this will last) when one of your party members gets a turn. For example, if you set the setting to 6 and Bartz gets a turn, everyone else's ATB bars will stop filling for about 3-4 seconds (even if you don't select a command to navigate through its menu). If you set it to 1, there will be no delays whatsoever when one of your characters gets a turn.

Also, you can change these settings whenever you like. Regarding what settings to use, it depends. You could get more of a 'challenge' if you select Active Mode (don't think this would work too well for low level runs, since you often need time to prepare everything, but setting the battle speed to 1 is fine in that case). As said, you can change these settings whenever you like, so it comes down to selecting the ones you feel the most comfortable with.

As for the timed inputs, depends on what version you're playing. Pretty sure this won't work on the Mobile/Steam version and the pixel remaster(or probably not as well as it does in the SNES/GBA versions). You can tell that the ATB bars in the SNES/GBA versions fill up in a different way than in the pixel remaster. When testing, I found that setting the battle speed to 5 let me perform the timed inputs consistently. I didn't thoroughly test 2 through 4 to see if they still work though. But they most likely do.

Really, if you can help it, get the US GBA version (do not pick the EUR one). Best version by a mile. If that's not a possibility, then the SNES version could work (less content than GBA and Mobile, but as of now it has the same content as the pixel remaster, while also having the bars work like they originally did).

>Wait/active mode and battle speed details
Thanks for the explanation.

>US GBA version
I'm playing this version because I read your first post. I was already choosing the GBA version but I didn't know about regional differences.

The game seems to offer a lot of options very early. I'm past Magissa and I can already use several magic abilities. I really like how fast you can change your party thanks to the Job System. FFIII was on the right track but you have to spend points just to change Job there.
By the way, how do Summons work in this entry? I've bought Chocobo and other two creatures.

>playing the US GBA version
Excellent. Enjoy.

>offer a lot of options very early
Yep. And it won't take long to get the other set of Jobs. It takes a good while to level them up though, but there are some good places to earn ABP, but the best place to grind for it is a lategame area.

If you don't mind spoilers, I can tell you about some Blue Magic spells which could come in handy in the earlier parts of the game. A few of them can only be gotten either in the earlier parts of the game, or late in the game, so if you missed them early, you can't get them mid-game.

Also, try to explore towns to find Song Magic. A few Songs can be permanently missed if you ignore them. Same applies to a few summons.

>Summons
When you get the Summoner, you can use the ones you've bought. Unlike a few of the latter entries, you can use them as many times as you want, as long as you have the necessary MP.

>info about early Blue Magic spells
Please tell me what I must know, I don't mind spoilers.

>exploration is needed for some meaningful options like Song Magic and Summons
Ok, I'll try to avoid rushing too much.

>Summoner for Summons
Got it, it makes sense.

Ok, here's a list of things you should keep in mind:

-Breaking elemental rods is great for the earlier parts of the game, and I guess for some of the middle game and a couple of instances lategame. When an Elemental rod is used as an item, it breaks, but you get a free -ga tier spell which targets everyone (can't force it to select a single target, that's why you might find casting the -ga spells yourself more useful, when you get them).

-Various status effects have a better chance to be inflicted the higher your level is. With the help of Mix, you can increase your effective level in battle if you don't want to bother grinding for EXP (the effects wear off after you win the battle, of course).

-Image is very useful, it negates two physicals (can be renewed) if it goes through your evasion% rate (so if you do block an attack with your shield or something else, your images will remain intact). The Ninja learns it at Job Level 2.

-When you're asked to choose three of the twelve legendary weapons, pick the Masamune, Sage's Staff, and Apollo's Harp (you can get them all, but you need to do some stuff first before gaining access to more of them, and these three are among the best picks).

-Just in case, in order to learn Blue spells, your character must be a Blue Mage, or have the Learning ability equipped on another Job (gotten from the Blue Mage). Then whoever meets any of these two conditions should be hit with the spell they want to learn (this isn't always the case), and obviously, you should win the battle afterwards.

-Learn Self Destruct. While this isn't what I would use for tougher battles, it speeds up a scripted fight significantly (though the scene loses some impact if you care about that), and another boss reacts in a hilarious way if hit with it. Motor Trap teaches it, and it's found on the Fire-Powered ship. Hit it with Thunder to make it use this spell.

-Death Claw is also very handy for the middle game. Some bosses are susceptible to it, even if you'd think otherwise. It sets the enemy's HP to single digits. Ideal to end the fight pretty quickly. Iron Claw casts this. He's found in Castle Karnak.

-Level 5 Death is something you absolutely want to have, and coupled with one or two other spells (though sometimes it works without these other spells) it's what enables you to instantly kill anything whose levels are a multiple of 5. This ignores Death immunity. Get it whenever you face Page 64, or it will be a long while until you can get another chance to learn it. Page 64 is found at the Library of the Ancients. Make sure only one of your character's levels is a multiple of 5 in order to learn this.

-Dark Spark halves the enemies' levels (or your own, this could come in handy if you want to learn the other level-based spells and you don't want to grind if your level is incompatible). Dark Flames use this. They're found near Crescent.

-Level 2 Old is what sets in motion the setup to time a Lv 5 Death against stuff whose levels aren't exactly multiples of 5 (yet), but they're multiples of 2 instead. Old decreases an enemy's level gradually. Learn this from the Level Tricker at Barrier Tower. You need the Beastmaster Job to force that enemy to use that spell in you via !Control.

-Romeo's Ballad and Alluring Air can be found in Istory and Lix respectively. If you don't get them before advancing to the second world, you will miss them permanently. The first one can be especially useful against a superboss and its upgraded version, while the other could help you to deal with Movers.

-Mana's Paean should be learned in the third world, specifically in the Library of the Ancients. Look for it as soon as you get access to said location, because you will never be able to get back to it if you progress a bit further.

-The Genji equipment tends to come in handy sometimes, but the Genji Shield is one, if not the best of the set imo. Make sure to have a Thief or the Steal ability, and use it each time you fight Gilgamesh (he won't always have a piece of the Genji equipment every time you face him, but I don't remember which fights has them, and which don't. I do recall that the Genji Shield can be stolen when you meet him for the last *or second to last* time in the Interdimensional Rift).

-Shiva is a missable Summon. You must fight against her in the first world (the current one). She's found in Castle Walse, behind a waterfall IIRC.

-Ramuh is not missable per se, but if you don't get him in the first world, you must wait until the third world if you want to get him. He's a random encounter, in the forest area near Istory.

-Catoblebas is also another random encounter, only found in the second world. But unlike Ramuh, he can be permanently missed. He's found in a forest area, but don't recall exactly where. Let me know when you get the submarine to send you an image to point you to its location.

-Carbuncle is also missable. He can be found at Castle Exdeath, in a hidden area (you must step on a certain tile) on 10th floor.

-You can catch monsters in this game. Some of them can either have effects to which you don't have access to yet, or can devastate some bosses (or deal major damage). Some are much more useful than most. You can do so with the Beastmaster's Catch ability (but you must bring the monster's HP down to 12.5% *later on you can get a piece of gear to increase that to 50% instead*).

Those are the things that come to mind immediately.

Thank you very much for the excellent post!
I'll follow your tips and get all these tools. My first impressions are extremely positive, I appreciate the fact you don't have to wait many hours to use less straightforward Jobs.

I forgot a few more things which you (and anyone else interested in playing this) could find interesting:

-Mix. This is probably the most versatile ability in the turn based FF games. It has almost everything, buffs, status effects, beneficial statuses, immunities, offensive capabilities, instant death, HP to Critical... What's not to like? For convenience, I'll put the (not quite complete) Mix list here, so everyone can use it for reference.

*Dragon Power (Dragon Fang + Potion/Dragon Fang + Hi-Potion): Increases your Level by 20. Stackable. Since Level affects a lot of offenses in the game (including status affliction rate), this is an amazing mix to use. You could power up to level 255 if you wanted to, but you will stop seeing changes in your damage output at level 99.

*Samson's Might (Holy Water + Antidote): Similar to Dragon Power, but it increases Level by 10 instead.

*Dragon's Kiss (Dragon Fang + Maiden's Kiss): Gives target the 'Heavy' and 'Dragon' traits. Former is useful to apply on your characters, as this will make them immune to various things, such as Gravity-likes, HP to Critical, Eject attacks (permanent removal of your character *cannot be revived or otherwise brought back until the battle ends*), etc.. And you could also set the Dragon status to an enemy (nothing in the game resists it) to use Dragon-killing weapons against them (don't worry, this will not trivialize your other weapon choices).

*Dragon Defense (Dragon Fang + Phoenix Down): Gives the target the Protect, Shell, Reflect, and Regen statuses.

*Dragon Shielding (Dragon Fang + Ether): Immunizes target against Fire, Ice, and Thunder.

*Resist Fire (Ether + Eye Drop): Target gains the ability to absorb Fire.

*Resist Ice (Phoenix Down + Antidote): Target gains the ability to absorb Ice.

*Resist Thunder (Phoenix Down + Eye Drop): Target gains the ability to absorb Thunder.

*Resist Poison (Antidote + Ether): Unlike the above, this doesn't make the user absorb Poison-elemental attacks. It only makes them immune to the status.

*Goliath Tonic (Dragon Fang + Elixir): Doubles maximum HP during battle.

*Hasty-ade (Turtle Shell + Eye Drop): Target gains the Haste status.

*Elemental Power (Holy Water + Eye Drops): Boosts all elemental attacks by 50%. This is the one and only way to boost Water.

*Lifewater (Potion + Hi-Potion): Gives user the Regen status.

*Lifeshield (Phoenix Down + Holy Water): Immunizes target against instant death attacks.

*Levisalve (Antidote + Maiden's Kiss): Target gains the Float status.

*Bacchus' Cider (Holy Water + Turtle Shell): User gains the Berserk status. Unblockable (as in, this ignores evasion checks, but if the target is immune to Berserk, this will miss).

*Blessed Kiss (Maiden's Kiss + Holy Water): Gives the target the Berserk, Haste, and Image statuses. This ignores Berserk immunity (and thus can break fights in half, only use it if you want to cheese fights *the postgame bosses are immune to it, IIRC*).

*Protect Potion Turtle Shell + Turtle Shell): Grants Protect and Shell.

*Smelling Salts (Antidote + Eye Drops): Removes Blind, Silence, Sleep, Confuse, Berserk, and Old.

*Remedy (Phoenix Down + Turtle Shell): Removes all negative statuses.

*Balm of Gilead (Hi-Potion + Ether): Restores all MP.

*X-Potion (Ether + Potion/Ether + Turtle Shell): Fully heals target.

*Reincarnate (Phoenix Down + Ether/Phoenix Down + Elixir): Revives a character with full HP/MP.

*Dark Gas (Eye Drop + Dark Matter): Causes Darkness to target.

*Dark Sigh (Dragon Fang + Eye Drop): Causes Darkness, Confuse, and Sap to target. Unblockable. Can fail to inflict Darkness and/or Confuse, but as far as I'm aware, everything is vulnerable to Sap.

*Dark Ether (Dark Matter + Ether): Reduces current enemy MP by 75%.

*Lilith's Kiss (Maiden's Kiss + Ether/ Maiden's Kiss + Elixir): Absorbs MP. IIRC it's boosted by your Level.

*Dark Elixir (Elixir + Dark Matter): Sets the target's Hp to single digits.

*Death Potion (Phoenix Down + Dragon Fang): Causes Instant Death. Ignores Heavy, but not Death immunity. Also ignores evasion checks (in other words, unblockable).

*Turtle Soup (Turtle Shell + Antidote): Halves Defense and Magic Defense.

*Succubus' Kiss (Maiden's Kiss + Turtle Shell): Absorbs HP. Has a base power of 255. Can be boosted by Level IIRC.

*Holy Breath (Holy Water + Dragon Fang): Holy-elemental attack, damage is based on the user's current HP.

*Dragon Breath (Dragon Fang + Dragon Fang): Fire, Ice, and Lightning elemental damage. Damage is based on the user's current HP.

*Poison Breath (Antidote + Dragon Fang): Poison-elemental attack. This time, damage is based on half the user's current HP.

*Dark Breath (Dragon Fang + Dark Matter): Deals damage based on the user's max HP - current HP.

*Shadow flare (Dark Matter + Dark Matter): Non-elemental damage. Base attack power is 240. Ignores 97% of the target's Magic Defense, and causes Sap.

This isn't a complete list, just copy-paste it from my notes, but every useful (and slightly less useful) Mix should be here.

And here's how you can get the Mix-exclusive items:

*Dragon Fang: Stolen from Great Dragons (common steal). They're in the cave portion of the Interdimensional Rift in the third world, try to find them in the room prior to finding the save point.

*Turtle Shell: Stolen from Achelon. They're in the same place as the Great Dragons. Common steal. A couple of turtle related enemies also drop it, but IIRC the earliest one that give it to you is the Grass tortoise, found near Karnak and the library of the Ancients in the first world.

*Dark Matter: Stolen from Orukats. They're in the same room as the Great Dragons and Achelons. Common steal. Alternatively, Exdeath's Soul (Sealed Castle) drops them 100% of the time. Sage's Staff is especially good against him, as is Apollo's Harp.

-The Mystic Knight's Spellblade ability is great. The status effect-based spells have a 100% chance of inflicting a status, provided the enemy is not immune to it. But they shine the best when using elemental swords. Note that you will only see the damage boosts when you hit a weakness, they don't boost attack power (outside Flare Sword). The lower tier elements will double the damage dealt against anyone that's weak to the element in question. The mid tier spells (Fira, Blizzara, Thundara) triple the damage when you hit a weakness, and the high tier spells (-ga spells, Bio and Holy) will quadruple damage. It shines even more when you unlock the ability to dual wield (gotten from the Ninja) and rapid fire (Ranger).

-Combine (Gba exclusive Job) is also very good. It's a lategame ability, but its best strengths are that it doesn't care about equipment outside elemental boosts (which Mix provides), so you can use equipment for defense/utility and leave the offense to Combine. Also, this has a 75% chance to inflict a status (depending on what cannon you use), which is unaffected by the enemy's level or their magic evade. And lastly, this is the only thing that can ignore counters, with the right setup (more of this later, when you get the Job).

-As an addendum to what I said about Image, you can also apply it via Blink, a White Magic spell. It costs a little MP to cast, and you can Dualcast it. Image costs nothing to use, which I guess is best appreciated in a low level run, where your resources are more limited.

-Quick + Dualcast (former can be bought in a hidden town in the third world, the latter is an ability gotten from mastering the Red Mage, but that will take quite a lot of time) enables you to use five spells (Quick gives you two free turns without having to worry about interruptions *outside counters IIRC*). And this also applies to Summons as well. You could use Thundaga five times, or even Bahamut.

-The Mini status has clear downsides (reducing your attack power significantly, and reducing your Defense), but it also has a pretty notable upside: it doubles Evasion%. If you use the Genji Shield (50% evasion) and you're under the Mini status, your Evasion% will be increased to 99% (can't get 100% by any means). So if you use this with the Knight's Cover ability (automatically protects allies with critical health) and Image (not necessary, but if you want to guarantee that nothing ever hits you if they somehow get past your 99% evasion *if you want to go for the overkill, apply Darkness/Blind to the opponent*), you can completely shut down any enemy who focuses on physicals. This has clear downsides, such as your other party members being easily killable with magic or enemy specific skills (if you don't have the means to negate such attacks), but still a very nice thing to take into consideration.

An early alternative to the above would be having a Knight use Guard, while everyone else has critical health. That Knight will receive 0 damage from physicals owed to Guard's effects, and won't let anyone receive a single point of damage, as long as the enemy uses a physical, and, as noted, if everyone else has critical health. The downside is that said Knight will be relegated to having to always use Guard, or else, the next time the enemy attacks, the Knight will receive damage.

-If you want multiple copies of the Thief's Glove (ups the chance of stealing from 40% to 80%), you can steal them from Sekhmet (Pyramid of Moore, 5th floor, third world), but make sure to not kill him, instead, when you get a glove, run away, and try to find him again. Repeat.

That said, the glove is a rare steal (3%). Note that the chance to steal something (40%) is not the same thing as getting a rare item (3%). To give a more clear example, the game checks to see if the first check (either 40% or 80% if boosted via the glove) succeeds. If it does, the game checks which item you will get. You can either get an item from the 'common' slot (97%), or the 'rare' slot (3%). If the enemy has an item in both slots, chances are that you will get the former, but that goes without saying. If the enemy has an item in the 'rare' slot, you only have a 3% chance of getting the item AFTER the first check succeeds (the 40%/80% one).

-There are two weapons whose power depends on how many times you've ran away. The Brave Blade gets weaker if you've ran away too many times in the course of the game (even prior obtaining it), while the Chicken Knife gets stronger. In other words, Brave Blade is at max power at the start of the game, and will stay that way if you never run away. But the Chicken Knife's potential is bigger than the Brave Blade's, since there's a bug in the game that ignores the "Agility" stat in almost every weapon's damage formulas, but Chicken Knife is among the few (if not the only one, don't quite remember) weapons that don't suffer from this bug. So don't feel bad from running away. You'll need to do it a lot if you want to max out its power, so better start doing it now. The Chicken Knife isn't missable, it's found in a town in the third world, though it's a bit hidden.

-Don't underestimate Hide (Bard's ability). It's one of the ways to negate damage that otherwise can't be nullified passively. It does have its downsides, as well as Jump, but don't forget that it exists.

-Two of the best kinds of monsters to catch are the ones that, upon being Released, use Strong Attack (as its name implies, it's a rather strong physical attack *can even deal 9999 damage to a lategame boss), and an Elemental HP% attack which, unlike Gravity, ignores Heavy (Blaze/Lightning/Breath Wing *Magic Dragon/Yellow Dragon/Lesser Lopros, Zu, respectively). It deals elemental damage based on max (not current) HP. So it can be pretty devastating.

If you want some advice for Castle Exdeath, you can either catch Yellow Dragons (found in said castle) and save them for Exdeath. Or, you can do the timed input trick with Lv 2 Old and Lv 5 Death. You must do the necessary preparations though (make sure you have these two spells before facing him).

Think that should do it for now. If you have any further questions, by all means, ask away. I'll be happy to help.

Apparently this game has a just input offense in Finisher (instead of being pure RNG) but I'm not 100% certain yet. If anyone wishes to try it, let me know to tell you how I think it works. Won't try this myself for a long time, I'm busy with other things to look into this extensively.

Went back to this momentarily to test something that got me curious for a long time now.

First, a bit of context. Status infliction rate in this game is determined by various factors. I can't recall them offhand, but I know that the major ones are the base success rate of the status, the Level of whoever is trying to inflict it, the Magic Evade% stat of the opponent, and I think their Level also counted as well.

This isn't much of an issue in low level runs, as there are (temporary) Level buffs. Though what got my attention was something else. Namely, fixed infliction rate.

It means just that. You have a fixed chance to inflict a status effect onto something (provided it's vulnerable to it in the first place). For example, Slow Cannon has a fixed 75% chance of inflicting Slow. Unlike a regular status spell, Slow Cannon doesn't care about your Level, or if the enemy has a 95% Magic Evade stat. Strictly speaking, you just have a 75% chance of inflicting Slow. Simple as that. Nothing can affect this chance.

This also extends to some weapons. I was trying to figure out a way to make Shinryu (one of the superbosses) even easier to beat. Turns out that the Dark Bow not only can inflict Darkness/Blind, it has a flat 66% chance of inflicting this status. Which is great, since Shinryu is vulnerable to Darkness, and his Magic Evade stat is 95% IIRC.

With this knowledge, I was able to device new ways to approach him with heavy restrictions to see how flexible Shinryu is. I was able to defeat him in the past without Mix, and also including the lack of shields.

Now? I've found out that you can beat Shinryu with no active Abilities (don't have a 0ABP file to test if he can be beaten without the permanent passives gained from leveling up Jobs, but in theory it's possible), and a full set of equipment (you have the right and left hand *used for dual wielding certain weapons, handling one weapon with two hands, or using a weapon in one hand and a shield in another*, head, body, and accessory slot).

The opposite is impossible, unfortunately (no equipment, but abilities allowed), but you can still beat him by occupying the accessory slot (and nothing else), plus two or three abilities.

Then I pushed this a bit further, and found out that you can also beat him with no active Abilities, and only using your 'hands' (so no headgear, armor, or accessories *just weapons and shields*). This is as far as you can go before the fight becomes entirely luck-based (though to be fair there's a bit of RNG to go through, but it's only at the very start of the fight *once you get past that, you're set*). I've theorized that No Active Abilities + 'One Hand' is within the realm of possibilities, but you would be entirely at the mercy of RNG.

I didn't know Shinryu could be THIS flexible. He was already my favorite superboss in the game, but this solidifies it. Granted, I still kind of prefer the 'No Shield' approach, as you need to be more proactive on that one. Same as trying to beat him with a character under the Frog status, and also banning the use of Mix. Good thing that the devs allowed us to use statuses on this superboss (usually they're immune to everything in most JRPGs), as well as the fact that Darkness works so well on him, and that there's multiple ways to inflict that status (with Mix, it's guaranteed to inflict it, but if you want to make things a bit harder *or if you simply want to use some other ability other than Mix, and you don't have enough ability slots for both*, there's always the Dark Bow and its fixed 66% chance to inflict said status).

Going from the above, I got curious about some of the other endgame bosses (not all of them, that would take an extremely long time to test), so I decided to test if it was possible to beat them with the above restrictions (No Equipment/No Abilities). Here is the summarized version of my findings (including what I noted about Shinryu):

1. Omega:
- No Equipment: Only possible if you ambush him.
- No Abilities: Possible, has already been done, but... it takes more or less 20 hours to defeat him.

2. Shinryu:
- No Equipment: Not possible. Requires, at minimum, one accessory.
- No Ability: Possible.

3. Bahamut:
- No Abilities: Possible. 66% chance to lose halfway through the fight, so it requires luck.
- No Equipment: Possible. Laughably easy.

4. Gil Turtle
- No Equipment: Possible. 75% chance to lose at the very beginning. If you get past that though, you're golden.
- No Abilities: Possible. Super easy.

5. Grand Aevis: Either not possible, or a massive RNG fest.

6. Archeodemon:
- No Equipment: Not possible. Requires one specific shield, at minimum (no need for accessories).
- No Abilities: RNG fest, but theoretically possible.

7-8. Neo Shinryu and Enuo: Doing either restriction is not possible.

9. Omega Mk.II:
- No Equipment: Only possible through a glitch. Otherwise, you require an accessory at minimum.
- No Abilities: Impossible.

So as you can see, No Equipment (or using one piece of gear if it isn't possible otherwise, such as an accessory or a shield) is easier, even in different fights. Which isn't that surprising, since you can use Mix and Hide (two of your best defensive options in the game), while the former doubles as an offensive tool as well (giving it tons of utility). In No Abilities, your best bet is either breaking rods, or if the target is a dragon or an undead, you use Apollo's Harp/Sage's Staff respectively (though the former locks you out of a shield, so you must use it wisely).

If anyone wants specifics for how the fights go in those restrictions, let me know. Keep in mind that while it's nice for V to allow this level of flexibility against some of these bosses, it's still a turn based game, so the harder the restrictions, the more likely you'll need to rely on RNG (unlike Action, in most cases). Some of the fights above require some degree of luck, but for the most part, nothing too crazy (especially when comparing it to, say, FFX's Shinryu under No Sphere Grid).

- Correction for Enuo (the hardest superboss in the whole game): He CAN be beaten with a single accessory. But it requires both luck, and a complete understanding of what's going on in the fight. First phase is like this. Second phase is a slog, but it's completely devoid of RNG (in other words, if you reach this phase, you've already won).

- Necrophobe can be beaten without equipment, but you need to jump over two hurdles (read: luck) in your first two actions (need to kill all the barriers in one go, failing to kill even one results in a game over), and you need to inflict Darkness (this is guaranteed to get inflicted with Mix, but Necrophobe gets two actions back to back, and he has a 25% chance to land a hit on you *and if he does, it's game over*, and while it doesn't mean much at first, you still need luck). No Abilities is theoretically possible, but on par with NSG Dark Anima in
X.

- Exdeath is theoretically beatable without equipment, but it requires, you guessed it, luck. If you use a shield (and nothing else), it becomes a LOT more manageable. If you also have a complete understanding of Neo Exdeath's AI, it's very unlikely to lose like this (with a shield, that is). Don't attempt to do No Abilities. Luck required is insane.

- Guardian is like Necrophobe with no equipment: You need to jump two hurdles (Launchers must not open with undesirable attacks). Once you get past that though, you're golden. No Abilities is impossible. You just don't have the requires offense to avoid a guaranteed death before time runs out, and you lack the abilities needed to dodge said guaranteed death.

Well, this is as far as I'll go with this testing for a while. Don't have any more year old save states to test more bosses, and I'm lazy to start the game from scratch.

Important note: Don't let the luck talk discourage you. That's to be expected from a turn based game where you apply unreasonable restrictions (where said restrictions mostly work in Action, since the luck factor is, in most cases, replaced with player skill, and/or knowledge). In case I didn't make it clear, I was fighting these bosses with those restrictions:

- Level 1
- Solo (the rest of your party is dead)
- No Equipment/No Abilities (either of the two, NOT both)

However, it still performs greatly in standard low level runs, for the most part. Figuring out a working strategy against the bosses is very fun. Especially since there are no definitive best answers like ultimate weapons in VII or X in terms of equipment. People may tell you that Rapid Fire breaks the game. While it's indeed quite strong, it's not a definitive answer to everything, and you'd be surprised at how many stuff are vulnerable to instant death, HP to single digits, or other statuses. I believe you can also accelerate Poison's rate with Haste.

If you do decide to play this game, do whatever it takes to play the US Advance version. Pixel Demaster not only lacks the GBA content, but it breaks a few things here and there (such as the synergy of two immunity piercing statuses, and I believe enemies are now immune to elemental Gravity attacks that used to ignore Gravity immunity).

Will respond to these when I have time. Maybe tomorrow I'll have a window.

Want to get into this at some point. I have a GBA emulator. No point bothering with the SNES original?

SNES is basically identical to the GBA version, but with less content. Only points in the former's favor are sound quality (but you likely don't care about that), and a bug that let you get any item (including two things that can't normally coexist in your inventory, so you're expected to choose one or the other). Virtually every damage formula, vulnerabilities (including the synergy between two spells I mentioned earlier, as well as the bit about elemental gravity working on everything *including bosses and superbosses* who wasn't immune to elements), modifiers, how ATB works (different from the now defunct mobile/steam version, and the Pixel Demaster), etc. are essentially the same as in the GBA version. So, yes, get the Advance version if you can. There are really no downsides at all from a gameplay standpoint.

Also, be sure to play the US version. EU version fixed a neat bug that allowed you to face rare mobs every second encounter (including the ones that give you TONS of Ability Points and money at the endgame, so it's super easy to master Jobs relatively quickly in the US version, but it takes a LOT of time to do so in the EU version *which fixed this bug* and the original SNES one).

>mix
What the...

>the base success rate of the status
Can this be seen anywhere?

>level
Why does this matter? Does a stat boost infliction rate?

>don't have a 0ABP file
How do you do this?

>hide
What is it?

>breaking rods
?

>If anyone wants specifics for how the fights go in those restrictions, let me know.
Once I play it and understand the situations, will do.

> I believe you can also accelerate Poison's rate with Haste.
Does this shorten the duration?

>what the
Mix is love. Mix is life.

>Can this be seen anywhere?
In-game? No. I can get the values for any spell you want to know about in due time, though. Note that you can get some enemy info from the bestiary or via Scan, but that's if you want to figure out things on your own as you play.

>Why does this matter? Does a stat boost infliction rate?
Yes, it's been kind of a thing since IV I believe. Pretty sure VI had it, but not sure if VII does.

This is the formula for it:

Hit% = Spell Hit% + Attacker Level - Target Level

So for example, Poison has a base Hit% of 99. Then you add your level, which is, say, 24. Then substract it with the target's level, which could be 30. You end up with a 93% chance to inflict the status. There's another (simpler) step to follow, but I don't want to overwhelm you with math talk for now.

Note that you don't have to level grind to be able to inflict statuses reliably. The game gives you, as I noted in my posts, the option to buff your level during battle (up to the cap), and also options that have a fixed chance to inflict a status, which is neither increased by your level, and more importantly, not decreased by the enemy's level. There's even options that make it so that you will ALWAYS inflict a status (if things are vulnerable to it), and there's two spells that ignore immunities, but they need other things to be able to function.

There's also another status that does not have any kind of immunity to stop it from being inflicted, but this is pretty worthless for direct damage. It does have an advanced application, but it's extremely situational. When you're on a quest to obtain the Earth Crystal, right before fighting the boss guarding said crystal, make a separate save file, and let me know.

>how to avoid earning Ability Points
Freelancers cannot earn ABP. So you just need to make sure that the only characters alive at the end of the battle are Freelancers, and kill off anybody else using a Job right before winning. Yeah, sounds pretty tedious. In that respect, I wish V had something like XII's Weak Mode to avoid having to do such things. Hell, even Action RPGs could follow XII's footsteps in that aspect (and more).

>what is Hide
An ability that makes the character who uses it to run out of the screen, allowing you to avoid almost any kind of enemy attack in the whole game. They can't attack while Hidden though (would obviously break the game otherwise), so you need to use the Reveal command (this counts as a consumed turn, so when you come out of Hiding, you need to wait until your ATB bar fills up again in order to be able to act).

>breaking rods
You can use certain elemental rods (and other weapons, but for now that's not relevant) from the Item command (while equipped on any of your hands), and they will be 'consumed' (or, as the game says, they break after use). This has been a thing since FF1, I believe. You can use them normally if you desire, but barely anyone does this.

Common uses for this is to use the highest tier of elemental spells (Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga *Fire Rod, Blizzard Rod, and Thunder Rod, respectively*) from the Item command, at no MP cost. Useful, but the caveat is that it targets everything, and you can't change it. This means that if there's something that absorbs the element you're about to use among the enemy formation, it will absorb it. Also, the -ga spells suffer from a -50% damage penalty when targeting multiple things (spells that automatically select all targets *except for the rod breaking case* do not suffer this penalty), and you can't "dualcast" them, so you still have plenty of reason to use your normal -ga spells, even if you have enough money to buy 99 of each rod type.

Note: Having an elemental rod equipped will boost elemental damage to whatever affinity the rod has by 50%. So if you use Thundaga, and it deals 3000 damage, and then equip a Thunder Rod, the spell will now deal 4500 damage. Note that you can also do this if you break a rod while having another rod of the same element equipped, but this locks you out of a shield.

>does this shorten the duration?
Poison does not have a time limit in V. It lingers until cured, or if the afflicted target gets killed.

Sorry Birdman, it doesn't look like Poison + Haste is as simple as it seems. I was going off by what a data miner and TAS runner (of all things) told me, but his notes weren't quite consistent with the reality seen in post #8 (of this thread). So I had to take matters on my own hands.

I did figure out how to accelerate the rate, but it's a bit complicated. I'll explain later, or whenever you get around to playing the game. I've already saved my notes on this matter.

Interesting to read through this. Plan to get into it once I'm done with my current rotation of shenanigans.

^ Glad to hear that.

I wanted to go over statuses, and list everything that causes them, including the chances of inflicting said statuses with every move, but that would probably take a lot of time.

However, I still want to go over instant death, at the very least. Will hide it behind a spoiler, just in case. I will be listing accuracy values, so use the formula I provided in post 25 (unless I say that it's a fixed value). "A" means "Always", so if the target isn't immune, the attack will never miss.

Ways to inflict Instant Death:

Came across this:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPEGByIsPxh3wvZvl4LKYmdUBWxl3aIdI&si=fZi4zDX_VQN_u95a

The guy recently started doing a low level solo challenge for the entire game. I covered most of the postgame, but he demonstrates that the whole game can be beaten, from start to finish, with a solo low level character (typically Lv 1).

Some spots are apparently luck based, but it's important to keep in mind that he's also following someone else's ruleset. He bans Level buffs (super important), Rod breaking (very powerful at the beginning, the part where you usually don't have most of your tools), and instant death (no need to speak about the importance of this whenever it's available, which is more often than you'd think). So without these additional restrictions, most things could be more reasonable, and you could end fights even faster.

Final Fantasy V was truly ahead of its time. Excellent title all around.