The Let's Play Archive

Final Fantasy V Challenge Megathread

by Various

Part 125: Magic

Rock the Omni-Blue Mage - Part 14: Magic

Last time, Rock killed a Stalker Wendigo demon in a temple in the middle of the sea.

This time,



he's still there. Time for some unfinished business!



This particular enemy formation shows up on occasion. The two enemies Rock cares about is The Damned and Executioner - mostly because they have the next two !Blue spells.



But first, he'll have to do some quick level grinding. Since he's at level 44, he'll just need one more level.

A quick refresher: EXP Up is a Cannoneer ability, so Rock1812



Once at 45, Rock faces Executioner first. They're great for catching up on any Level X spells, as they use all of them.
Technically, the earliest Rock could have gotten Level 3 Flare was through a Red Dragon in Exdeath's Castle, but that would also require him to be a Mime to get it solo or some party members.



In either case, make sure to take off the Reflect Ring first, as it still counts as a normal Flare spell.







Next !Blue spell is going to take a bit of a setup, requiring Rock to dust off !Control.

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The Damned is a 2-for-1 deal, having both Doom and Off-Guard. There's just one catch -



they don't have any MP. Hope you have an Ether or Elixir handy!



The earliest you can get Doom is from Exdeath on the Second World, though that may not be particularly viable if you are doing a solo run as it effectively turns his fight into a timed battle.
The Damned also show up in the Pyramid as a monster-in-a-box, but here they show up as a regular encounter in case you missed it.

In either case, with that taken care of, it's time to move on to the next part.



Last update, killing Wendigo got Rock the second tablet and also opened up the Fork Tower.
While it would be nice to have Rock solo it and tear the place a new one, it requires at least two people to clear. Since he's feeling generous, he wakes up the rest of the team.



Rock stops off at the Sealed Temple and gets them some nice gear before running them through a hasty training regimen.



The enemies around the outside of Fork Tower often include Mykal, who tends to cast Moon Flute. If they don't, Rock can cast it himself with impunity thanks to the Reflect Ring.
In either case, it helps automate a LOT of the grinding. A quick stop at the Inn or the occasional White Wind will keep the party going.







The party enters as soon as Lenna gets !Image, Krile !Mix, and Faris !Zenigage.


CarbyBot posted:

Magical left, physical right~


Rock takes the left side, everyone else gets the right.



The Reflect Ring makes the magical tower a breeze.



Equip Swords and the Brave Blade makes it a joke, as Goblin Punch doesn't trigger the physical counter on any enemies in the tower.



Once he reaches the top, the action switches over to the others.



The Blue Crew, despite being somewhat underleveled for this part, don't really have anything to worry about. There's only 2 enemies (a Ronkan Knight and a Titan recolor) that will pose any sort of challenge, but are easy to run from.

Case in point, the game throws Goblins and Bandersnatches at them - both of which can be fought before visiting the first town of the game.



There's not much happening in the towers except for the occasional loot and fights. The main event is the boss fights at the top.



The Blue Crew squares off against the Minotaur. It's big, it's dumb and hits...kind of hard, I guess?

The main strategy is that Krile !Mixes up some leftover Dragon Fangs and Potions to boost Faris' level with Dragon Power.




In turn, this greatly increases the damage Faris' !Zenigage does. Three tosses will do the trick since the boss has a little under 20K HP. Lenna is there to help chuck potions with Krile and soak up hits with !Image.



For those of you who may have been wondering, !Blue does not work here despite being immune to Silence.





WalterThe Blue CrewTrump
And of courseBaruto

Meanwhile,



Rock faces off against rug wizard Omniscient. His gimmick is that anything not magic will cause him to cast Return and reset the fight.



He also has a shitton of MP - 30K to be exact. The normal trick for this fight is to hit him with Silence to neuter him and let loose with attacks, or to drain his MP.

Tossing an Ether on him will set his MP to 9999, making it feasible to drain. The problem is that it triggers the Return counter and Rock doesn't have something to Silence him with to prevent that.



Magic Hammer works, but after landing two times, it didn't seem to work anymore for Rock. And 7500 is still a far cry from 0.



Mind Blast works.



As does Goblin Punch, though it's better to go with Aeroga and the Air Knife or Magus Rod, as Omniscient is weak to Wind attacks.



Of course, instead of worrying about MP or Silence or anything like that, a single Dark Spark+Level 2 Old combo means smooth sailing for Rock.




Not that the Reflect Ring was doing that already.



Oh, that's not good. The tower starts imploding or...something, and the gang escapes without a hitch.



Almost.

BOSS DEATHS: 0
TOTAL BOSS DEATHS: 21
ENDING LEVEL: 46

Next Time: Rock finally gets that sub, and with it the end is in sight.