Final Fantasy V Walkthrough
Written by Djibriel
Contributor
3.5: Airship Exploration
Enemies: Exdeath's Soul, Slug, Gloom Widow, Mykale, Frost Bull, Istory Lythos, Spizzner, Nix, Water Scorpion, Vilia, Gel Fish, Rukh, Sea Devil, Stingray
Treasures: Cottage
Blue Magic: 
Moon Flute, 1000 Needles, Lilliputian Lyric, Aero, Mighty Guard, Goblin Punch, ????
Features: Syldra, Sinewy Etude
Now that you've gotten the airship, there is a lot of stuff you can do. I'll give it to you in the most logical order, which isn't that hard. First off, we're going to raid this entire place of all its little treasures we can find without diving head-first into one of the deathtraps this game regards as 'dungeons'. The goodies:- A powerful new Blue spell, Mighty Guard
- A
Ribbon from an NPC from Regole and a Cottage found in Carwen - A new song, the Sinewy Etude
- A new Katana, the
Murasame - A new summoned monster, Syldra, found in the Pirate Hideout
- Three weapons from the Sealed Castle of Kuza
- Rare stolen weapons including a
Rune Blade, a Defender, a Murasame and a very rare 
Dragon Whisker - A new summoned monster, Odin, fought in Castle of Bal
Where Tycoon Castle once was, the Void broke free of its 1000-year old prison, at the same location it did one millennium ago. Don't fly the airship into it; you'll get sucked into trouble you can't handle yet. If you do, it's no problem; you can leave by simply re-entering your airship.
In the northeast corner of the World Map lies the massive Gloceana Desert. To the west lies Regole. Remember the little girl here whose
Ribbon had gone missing? She has found it again, and donates it to your cause. It's super-effective against instant death, Petrify, Toad, Poison, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, evil and several kinds of cancer, I hear. Regole still offers the pleasures of alcohol and dancing, should you be in need of some short-sighted ways of dealing with your problems. Also, there is a piano if you missed it earlier; it's hidden in the Pub. Hidden pianos are the best pianos!Carwen is located in the southeast corner of the Gloceana Desert. Here, you can find a Cottage from a barrel you couldn't pick up earlier, as an NPC was blocking the path. Go right of the Pub, down at the docks, middle barrel. If you freed Lone Wolf, you won't be able to get the Cottage here as the fiend has taken it.
Also, one of the women (the one south of the Pub, between two bushes) here asks you if you think she's pretty. If you answer "yes," ‘she' will reveal her true nature as a mimic and speed off. The person you just spoke with was Gogo, master of the simulacrum... his miming skills will astonish you. You'll meet him later, have no doubt. In addition, the NPCs here are of the weirdest variety. One of them mentions how the odd mimic was planning on visiting the Tower of Walse. This is a plot hook. There is a piano here if you missed it before.
Northeast of the Desert of Shifting Sands, in Castle Surgate, you can find some scholars who escaped the Library of the Ancients. No matter, they're not important. I mean, they're important in the sense that every human life is unique and priceless like a beautiful snowflake and all, but they're not directly relevant to our quest. If you didn't get the Cottage here yet, now's the time!
The long, thin stretch of land in the southeast corner of the Map has a slight bulge in it. This is the former Crescent Island. Fly there to find the Minstrel who offered to teach you new songs based on your piano skills earlier. If you've played all seven pianos so far, your rendition of Mozart's Alla Turca should impress him enough to compose the Sinewy Etude, a song which slowly increases your Strength in battle. An etude, for those unfamiliar with the player's side of music, is a piece of music written to make the player more competent at his instrument; it's a kind of homework. Also in Crescent: Mid! He's panicking, not confronting issues at hand and generally unfit for military service should the opportunity present itself. Whatever, let him be. He might find the personal strength to deal with his personal demons. Probably not, though.
Take the airship to where Lix used to be, now a gaping black hole across the coastline to the far north and a bit to the east. Alternatively, you can sail to the very south-eastern corner of the World Map (or, if you want to take a look at the enemy encounter map for this world, about half the squares with sea). Here, while sailing around, you'll always encounter a Rukh bird (rarely with two Sea Devils). This bird has a rare
Murasame for stealing, a stronger Katana than your current Osafune with a very high critical hit ratio. Super-sweet and fun to use! The Sea Devils have a rare Defender, a Knightsword with the 
Main Gauche's evasive properties that also casts 
Protect when used as an item without breaking. The Rukh enemy has 9000 HP, which is a lot. Next to fairly powerful physicals, it may use Breath Wing and even Zombie Breath. It is vulnerable to every status ailment except for those that change form (Toad and Mini), so you should be able to cripple it and then let loose with damage. !Control is a good command in this battle; its Breath Wing helps in defeating the massive avian.In the very southwestern corner of the World Map, more fun stuff is happening! Nix are Sahagin upgrades, boring as hell. You can get
Goblin Punch from their !Control menu. Gel Fish are just jellyfish that washed aboard; they're weak to Lightning and may use ???? through !Control; they're so physically weak they'll always inflict 0 damage. Vilia may not look like it, but she attacks physically only and with great force to boot. Golem will help you when you run into the floating flower girl. The Gel Fish formation gives a nice 8 ABP, a single Rukh gives 8 ABP (when followed by two Sea Devils it's 13 ABP) and the single Vilia gives a whopping 25 ABP! Not a bad place to look around for ABP without gaining levels, as nothing on the wide seas gives you Experience Points. Vilia may drop a rare 
Angel Ring, but between getting them from Druids and getting all the Gil you ever wanted from Gil Turtle, that might not be something to swoon over.Water Scorpions are all over the place; just sail around in any location besides the two I just gave. South of Moore is a piece of desert, for instance; west of this desert lie waters that include a 65% shot at finding them. They just attack physically, or may !Sting you to set Paralyze. They're weak to Lightning! On the ocean, imagine!
For more information on this subject of sea (or land) encounters, see the guide linked above.
You can spot Boko on the World Map as well. From here, you should be able to find the Pirate Hideout. You can land in the little hole in the mountains for a shortcut. The party will enter the cave where the pirates live only to have Faris rush off to a nearby shore. Syldra will appear, and with the help of Krile she'll give us her power. Remember kids: friendship can only be measured in battle power. Man, I'm so nihilistic I think Sartre was full of it! Syldra's Thunderstorm is a massively powerful Wind-elemental attack which you can boost with the
Air Knife. It's now what Titan was when you first got him. Dancers, Chemists, Bards and all those Jobs can boost the power behind it. It is the best. If you want to have more Air Knives, you can buy them in Moore. Moore Air Knives!Fly back to Tule. To the east and a bit to the north lies the Sealed Castle of Kuza. The scholars of the Wind Shrine now inhabit the halls. With the tablet, you can go to the room with the twelve weapons. As soon as you place the tablet on the sparkling tile, the exit will submerge and you can pick out any three of the twelve weapons sealed here. Before you reach the room of the Twelve Weapons, though, you might encounter Shield Dragons or an enemy called Exdeath's Soul, that elusive #87 you've been missing in your Bestiary for half a game now.
"I've got Exdeath's Soul, but I'm not Exdeath's soldier" - The
Aevis Killers (2004)These phantom spirits of a great and terrible mage (guess which one) have 20000 HP (!) and are immune to all status ailments. They are weak to Holy-elemental attacks, are Heavy, Humanoid and Undead of nature and will either use physical attacks or try to set Death by means of either
Death spells, 
Banish spells or a Reaper's Sword attack. Exdeath's Soul has a very high Evasion rating as well, so damaging it is a chore.!Drink + !Mix (Holy Breath) is very powerful. This is a random fight that may call for boss tactics;
Hastega, Golem and Carbuncle are not wasted luxuries. I should note that Exdeath's Soul is immune to !Control, so no luck there. Requiem can be very powerful in dealing with the fiend. Exdeath's Soul is not a difficult fight per se since all of its attacks are single-target (meaning you can always keep reviving and dealing damage) and miss often. But it'll be a long fight.The Twelve Sealed weapons:
- Excalibur: A Holy-elemental Knightsword that's quite a bit more powerful than all other options (unless you count a fully powered Brave Blade). Adds Strength +5.
- Assassin's Dagger: A Knife that has a 25% chance of casting Death on its target.
- Sasuke's Katana: A much more powerful version of a Main Gauche, this baby allows you to dodge 25% of all physical attacks before a Hit Rate check is made. Can only be equipped by Ninjas. In addition, it stacks with the Main Gauche, meaning two separate checks.
Holy Lance: A Holy-elemental Lance which adds Strength +3. Second only to a difficult-to-obtain Lance you'll get in the very last dungeon. 
Rune Axe: An Axe with an awesome property that is slightly wasted on the Berserker. Grants Magic Power +3. - Masamune: A Katana with allows the wielder to start with a full ATB bar every battle, allowing him or her to take the first turn in every situation. Often inflicts a critical hit, casts Haste when used as an item.
- Yoichi's Bow: A powerful bow. Grants Strength +3 and Agility +3 It has a Critical Hit rating chance of 30%.
- Fire Lash: A non-elemental Whip that randomly casts Firaga.
Sage's Staff: A Staff which boosts Holy-elemental attacks by 50%; it also deals eight times as much damage versus the Undead, casts Raise when used as an item. 
Magus Rod: A Rod which boosts Fire-, Ice-, Lightning-, Poison-, Earth- and Wind-elemental attacks by 50%. Deals Fire-, Ice- and Lightning-elemental damage. 
Apollo's Harp: A Harp that deals magical, non-elemental damage. Inflicts eight times as much damage on creatures with a Dragon or Undead nature. 
Gaia's Bell: A Bell that has a 25% chance of using Earthquake, boosts Earth-elemental attacks by 50%.
It's hard to pinpoint the three best ones right now. The
Gaia's Bell inherently fails, I'm sorry to say. The Fire Lash isn't that awesome in my opinion, though if you plan on using a Beastmaster in the near future it's definitely an improvement over the Chain Whip (though not as good as a Dragon Whisker, which you can obtain on the Overworld Map). The Assassin's Dagger is good for two things: Battle Power and its random Death spell. Neither of them are extremely impressive at this point in the game. The Sage's Staff is useful only for boosting the power of the Holy spell which you don't have yet, and for damaging Undead. Apollo's Harp deals incredible amounts of damage versus Undead targets (such as Exdeath's Soul) and Dragon targets; the latter nature can be set through the Dragon Kiss Mix potion.The
Rune Axe deserves a very special mention. It's already more powerful than your Gaia Hammer, even without the Rune damage increase. For 5 MP (which the Berserker isn't going to use anyway), 10 is added to its normal 71 Battle Power. However, it's with the Multiplier that the Rune damage increase gets freaky. Next to the normal Strength * Level modifier that's used, this value is increased by a similar formula with Magic Power * Level. Should those stats be the same, the damage output would double. On the Berserker, whose Magic Power is extremely low, this is only a damage increase of about 6%. Meh, still a free 10 Battle Power bonus regardless of that stupid formula. Plus, the Rune Axe is plain stronger than the Gaia Hammer to begin with, and it doesn't have that annoying tendency to use Earthquake instead. Just know that in the future, when you get both Strength and Magic Power equal (on a Freelancer, for instance), the Rune Axe easily keeps up with a fully powered Brave Blade in damage output.I'd personally go with the
Masamune, Sasuke's Katana (if you picked the Brave Blade) or Excalibur (if you picked the Chicken Knife). If you plan on specifically using a Dragoon, Ranger, Beastmaster, Berserker or Bard, picking their respective weapons first will be more useful. The above are just kinda the best weapons for an all-round party in my opinion. Note that the only weapons I would advise against are the Fire Lash and the Gaia's Bell. The latter is absolutely useless and the former is outclassed by a Whip you can guarantee to wield after the next assignment.One trick with
Apollo's Harp: with the !Mix outcome (Dragon Fang + Maiden's Kiss), you can set the Dragon type to every opponent. This makes Apollo's Harp a very powerful weapon against these targets, especially when it's used by a character with a Summoner's Magic Power.When you're done, you'll see a brief scene of Exdeath sending some of its ultra-demons out to get you. I'm sure we won't be having to face them one-by-one at the end of certain ruins.
It's fun to see how the
Holy Lance, Sage's Staff, Excalibur and Apollo's Harp make dealing with Exdeath's Soul so much easier already. Set Haste to the weapon's wielders and watch the damage fly.To the south of the Gloceana Desert, there's a little piece of land sticking out in its neighborhood, old-time enemies such as Sahagin and Thunder Anemones appear. If you're not encountering them, you're on the wrong spot. There's a rare 1/16 chance a monster called Stingray will appear.
This creature is extremely strong and randomly drops a
Dragon Whisker, the strongest Whip in the game. But this isn't the biggest reason we've come to fight the fiend. When Controlled (you can confuse it) it can use Mighty Guard, a Blue spell which sets Protect, Shell and Float to the entire party at once. It's awesome, and Stingray is its only source. Also, this creature has a rare steal: the Rune Blade. It's a sword with the same property of the Rune Axe. It does have a common steal in Dark Matter (because its smooth flat body belies the darkness within), but you'll just have to cast Return a few times.As an opponent, the Stingray is resilient but manageable. It has 30000 HP. It's getting crazier and crazier, huh? It is Heavy, sadly, and has no elemental weaknesses. It can be Paralyzed (but it won't take long).
Slow works, as does Stop and Confuse. Never set Confuse, though, because the Tidal Wave attack, when used on itself, will restore 8000 HP or so. Poison would be a good way of dealing damage, especially since you'll be facing the Stingray for a long time.Now for the goodies!
Mighty Guard sets Protect, Shell and Float on all allies, so that's one of the best defensive buffs ever. The Dragon Whisker is a mighty Whip which will always deal a Critical Hit against Dragons and will try to Paralyze a target 50% of the time. It is a better Whip than the Fire Lash in my opinion. The Rune Blade is like the legendary Rune Axe, but since it is a Sword (not a Knightsword, a normal one) it can be given to those that manage to combine physical might with magical skills. Red and Blue Mages as well as Mystic Knights can wield it with potency (compare with the Great Sword if you must), while the best recipient is obviously a Knight with !Summon 5. Crazy, crazy amounts of damage, comparable to a fully powered Brave Blade even. It is easily the most damaging Sword for those not capable of wielding the Knightswords, even though its listed Battle Power isn't too hot.Important note: though the
Rune Blade is a sweet deal on the Mystic Knight due to the Mystic Knight's inherent Magic Power and Strength, the Rune Blade is actually incompatible (!) with Spellblade magic. So it's a good deal for random encounters (paired with Two-Handed if you will), but if you want to use the saracen scourge for its Spellblade tactics in longer battles, switch to another blade.To the north, where Istory used to be, you can find three new critters for your Bestiary. The Frost Bull attacks physically only, and runs when subjected to a Fire-elemental attack (like its cousin, Big Horn). Spizzner is a mere Magic Beast cannon fodder; reminiscent of the Sand Killers, the Spizzner is not Undead. Istory Lythos may attack physically or use Frostbite; they have impressive defenses and possess a rare
Judgement Staff for you to take. Bio is a good way of dealing with them; they're not weak to it or anything, but it cuts nicely through their Magic Defense and is unblockable.
Caves of Narshe: Final Fantasy V
Version 6
©1997–2025 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)
All fanfiction and fanart (including original artwork in forum avatars) is property of the original authors. Some graphics property of Square Enix.
Version 6
©1997–2025 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)
All fanfiction and fanart (including original artwork in forum avatars) is property of the original authors. Some graphics property of Square Enix.