Final Fantasy V: Job System FAQ Version 1.1--28 March 2003 by Dave Connoy connoy@lycos.com +---------+ | Preface | +---------+ I recently played through Final Fantasy V for the first time, and while I was satisfied with a couple of FAQs on the game, I didn't find enough discussion to satiate my interest in the mechanics of the game's job system. Nor have I seen any real insight into how to use it efficiently, besides notes like "turn all your guys into black mages against this boss". So I decided to just figure out how everything works myself, come up with some conclusions, and put it all here in hopes that someone else might find it useful. My idea with this FAQ is to provide detailed information on each of the jobs, their statistics, what they are able to equip, and the usefulness of their skills. I hope I can make it all come together to make a sort of "gestalt" view of the job system that will help those who are new to the game not waste money on equipment they don't need, or waste their time learning useless jobs or skills that won't work together in the long run. And heck, maybe even FF5 old-timers will learn something too. +-------------------+ | Table of Contents | +-------------------+ I. Version History II. Overview of the Job System III. Job Classes Warrior Classes Skill Classes Caster Classes Hybrid Classes Special Classes IV. Putting It All Together V. Credits & Copyright Info +--------------------+ | I. Version History | +--------------------+ Version 1.1--28 March 2003 Grizzled FF5 veteran Alex Jackson (awj_in_japan@hotmail.com) has clued me in to a bunch of FF5 subtleties, resulting in some improvements to a few of the ability commentaries and a new segment on glitching the game. Version 1.0--17 February 2003 This may be the fist and last version, since I have a pretty good idea of what I want to have in this FAQ. Still, corrections and additions are possible. +--------------------------------+ | II. Overview of the Job System | +--------------------------------+ The game has a manual, and many FAQs cover the basics. You should know already that each job has its own command that comes with it, and you have a second "free" slot to put one of your learned command or support abilities in. I'll cover how the "Mime" and "Bare" jobs are exceptions to this rule when I get to them. Getting the most out of the job system requires changing jobs very often. AP costs to level up jobs are very low early on, but rise quickly as you gain levels. So to earn abilities at a steady pace, each character should "bounce" rapidly between five or more jobs instead of mastering them one at a time. However, it's important to know that if you don't pay attention to what each job can equip, you will find yourself running out of money repeatedly because you are buying too many different types of helmets and armor. If you have a character bouncing between Knight, White Mage, and Ninja, you'll need to carry three different helmets and three different armors in your inventory, just so that character has something to equip at all times. If you try something like this, you'll be pulling your hair out at how much gear you have to buy and keep track of. So instead, think carefully about what equipment the jobs can use before assigning characters to them. There are three major types of helmets and armor, and if we look at the jobs in terms of which types they can equip, there are five major job types. The following section, which describes each job in detail, should help with this. I'll call the major armor and helmet types Heavy, Medium, and Light. Here are a couple of charts laying out the different helmets and armor. I'll include the basic Def and M.Def stats for each piece, but consult a comprehensive FAQ (I recommend Matt Hobbs & Dragon Fogel's walkthrough) to learn about any special abilities of each one. Helmets ======= The Leather Cap, Plumed Hat, and Coronet can be used by all classes. Light Def MDef|Medium Def MDef|Heavy Def MDef ------------------------+------------------------+------------------------ HairOrnament 0 2 |Green Beret 3 2 |BronzeHelmet 2 2 Lamia'sTiara 3 7 |RopeHeadband 6 2 |Iron Helmet 4 2 Wizard Hat 4 2 |Tiger Mask 9 2 |MythrilHelmt 6 2 Poet Cap 6 2 |Black Hood 12 2 |Gold Helmet 8 2 Circlet 10 2 | |DiamondHelmt 10 2 | |CrystalHelmt 13 2 | |Genji Helmet 15 2 | |Thornlet 20 5 Armor ===== LeatherArmor can be equipped by any class. Light Def MDef|Medium Def MDef|Heavy Def MDef ------------------------+------------------------+------------------------ Cotton Robe 2 4 |Bronze Plate 3 2 |Bronze Armor 4 2 Silk Robe 4 6 |Kung-fu Suit 5 2 |Iron Armor 6 2 Poet Robe 6 8 |Silver Plate 7 2 |MythrilArmor 9 2 Earth Robe 8 10 |Ninja Suit 9 2 |Gold Armor 12 2 LuminousRobe 11 12 |Power Tasuki 11 0 |DiamondArmor 15 2 Black Robe 14 14 |DiamondPlate 13 2 |Crystalmail 20 2 White Robe 14 14 |Mirage Vest 14 4 |Genji Armor 22 2 |BlackCostume 17 2 | |Bonemail 30 5 | +------------------+ | III. Job Classes | +------------------+ Now that you know what I'm talking about when I refer to the different types of armor, I'll start a run-down of all the job classes. Each entry will include the following: --The job's default command. --The innate abilities of the job. These support abilities come "for free" to a character using the job, and don't need to be equipped. --What types of weapons the job can equip. The "special weapons" are the Double Lance, Moonring, and Razor Ring. Everything else should be self- explanatory. --The job's effects on the attributes of the character using it. Vigor determines the damage done by the character when he/she attacks. Speed determines how fast the character's action comes up in battle. Stamina determines how much HP the character has. Mag.Pwr determines the character's MP and the potency of his/her magic. Following all this will be a list of the job's abilities, with some commentary on their uses. When discussing the stats given by many of the EqX and magic abilities, I'll be putting attribute bonuses in [brackets]. These increases do not "stack" with the character's other bonuses; instead, the character will get the bracketed attribute increase only if he doesn't get a better one from his/her job or another equipped ability. Warrior Jobs ============ Warrior jobs ("tanks" for short) are meant to deal and take physical damage. They can equip the most damaging weapons, and because they have the most HP and can equip shields, they are the only type of job that can consistenly withstand attacks in the front row. I recommend dedicating two of your characters to warrior jobs; have them learn the 2-handed ability as soon as possible so they can be the backbone of your damage-dealing and defense. Other useful tank abilities include the Samurai's !$toss and Swrdgrab, and the Sorcerer's !Sword. Warrior jobs can equip medium or heavy armor, but only heavy helmets. Knight ------ The Knight is the first warrior job you'll acquire. Have any characters that are going to be tanks use it exclusively until they learn the 2-handed ability, which works well with the other warrior jobs. After that, it's not of much use until the heavy swords (Flame Saber, Blizzard, Blood Sword, Defender, Excalibur, Ragnarok, and Brave Blade) show up late in the game. This class also has great synergy with the Sorcerer's Sword Magic ability. Job Command: Guard Innate Abilities: Cover Can equip: Daggers, Light Swords, Heavy Swords, Shields Stats: Vigor: +23 Speed: +1 Stamina: +20 Mag.Pwr: -14 Total AP to master: 690 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 10 Cover Protect KO'd ally Hooray for clear description. The Cover ability will actually cause the user to jump in front of any single-target physical attacks directed at an ally that is *near* being KO'd (stooping over), and take the damage instead. Usually a good thing, as long as your character with Cover isn't also the one with the ability to resurrect allies. 2 30 !Guard Defends against physical attack Guard is like Defend, but reduces physical attack damage to zero. With a Knight in the party, you can "lock out" enemies that only use physical attacks by reducing the other characters' HP to critical levels. The Knight will then jump in front of all the enemy's attacks, but take 0 damage from each one. If you want to play really dirty, you can use this against just about *any* enemy by putting Berserk on it. It even works against Shinryu! 3 50 2-handed Can hold sword/katana/axe in 2 hands for 2x effect This is probably the most all-around useful ability for a tank character. It doubles the damage from any weapon that works with it, and the only limitation is that you can't use also a shield. No big deal, since the huge amount of damage the character will be doing will end battles twice as fast, subjecting you to half as much damage anyway. 4 100 EqShield Can equip shield Most of the EqX abilities are a waste of an ability slot. If you really need to have a shield (and I can't really see why that would be), just switch to a class that can use one in the first place. 5 150 EqArmor Can equip armor Very lame. This only allows you to wear heavy armor, not helmets. If you're hellbent on making a caster that can tank, give a Knight a magic ability instead of giving this to a caster. 6 350 EqSword Can equip sword This ability allows you to equip all types of swords (heavy and light) and gives a [+23] Vigor bonus. Unfortunately, there is no corresponding Stamina bonus, so the user will probably have to fight from the back row, making the whole exercise rather pointless. Lancer ------ Lancers are probably the least useful of the warrior jobs, since they work poorly with the other warrior abilities. Spears don't work with 2-handed, and obviously, you can't use Sword Magic with them either. The Jump ability might seem fantastic, but remember that your tanks are *meant* to take damage. If your Lancer spends too much time in the air, that will just cause your more fragile characters take all the damage instead. Job Command: Jump Innate Abilities: None Can equip: Daggers, Spears, Shields Stats: Vigor: +18 Speed: +5 Stamina: +15 Mag.Pwr: -12 Total AP to master: 600 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 50 !Jump Jumping attack; 2x stronger with spear attack The Lancer jumps high into the air, removing himself from combat for one round. He then comes down on the targeted enemy, doing twice normal damage if equipped with a spear. I outlined the limitations of this technique above, but it still has its uses. In the battle with Minitaurus at the top of Fork Tower, change both of your characters into Lancers (with the Swrdgrab ability if you have it). Put them in the back row and Jump repeatedly, and it's all over for him. Also, against enemies that use missiles, a Jumping character will cause the missile to fly off course and do no damage. Weird, but true. 2 150 !Lance Suck HP/MP A great idea, but it doesn't absorb enough HP or MP to make it worthwhile. If you use this at all, don't use it against undead enemies. 3 400 EqLance Can equip spear The character can equip a spear and gets [+18] to Vigor. As a weapon, the spear is only useful for enhancing the Jump attack, so either just use a Lancer or give a Bare character !Jump if you absolutely have to jump. Samurai ------- Samurai are a very strong warrior class. Their katanas do a lot of damage and are one of the only weapons that seem to get critical hits regularly. The job's only real limitation is that katanas don't work with Sword Magic. I'd highly recommend mastering this class, to pass the Swrdgrab ability on to the Bare and Mime jobs. Job Command: $toss Innate Abilities: Swrdgrab Can equip: Daggers, Katanas, Shields Stats: Vigor: +19 Speed: +2 Stamina: +19 Mag.Pwr: -12 Total AP to master: 820 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 10 !Sslap Petrify enemy Sslap does as much damage as a regular attack, with a (very, very) small chance of petrifying the target. It's probably not worth wasting an ability slot on unless you're using a Mime, in which case you could use this instead of !Fight and not really be losing anything. 2 30 !$toss Throw GP, damage enemy The Samurai hurls your money at all the enemy targets, doing heavy damage. Use it, don't abuse it. At the very end of the game, when you've bought everything you're possibly going to buy, !$toss becomes the ultimate damage- dealing ability. Use it sparingly until you have no more use for money, though, because you will literally be throwing it away. Most of the damage I did in the final battle came from two characters using !$toss every turn. 3 60 Swrdgrab Catches attack Swrdgrab simply gives you an added chance to dodge an enemy physical attack completely, and works often enough to be a real life-saver. It's a good second ability choice if (for whatever reason) 2-handed isn't an option. 4 180 EqKatana Can equip katana Yay, another EqX ability. It also gives [+19] Vigor. Katanas have some advantages, but not enough to justify taking up an ability slot. 5 540 !Fdraw Route enemy I think they mean "rout" the enemy. After taking a turn or so to charge up, the Samurai kills all enemies on-screen. Sounds great, but due to its high AP cost, you probably won't learn this ability until late in the game, when most enemies are immune to it. I didn't get much of a chance to play around with this, so if someone knows more about how it works (or maybe some neat ways to use it for AP or Exp farming), then send me an email. Berserker --------- In case you didn't know, you have no control over a character in the Berserker class during a battle--he or she will attack a random enemy every time his or her turn comes up. It may seem unattractive to have a character that you can't control, but consider that your tanks will probably not be doing much besides attacking anyway. Unless you have some great command ability that you'd really like your tank(s) to use, the Berserker's immense attack and defense can at least be entertaining during random battles. Job Command: None Innate Abilities: None Can equip: Daggers, Axes, Shields Stats: Vigor: +21 Speed: -9 Stamina: +25 Mag.Pwr: -23 Total AP to master: 500 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 100 Berserk Attack until enemy dies The Berserker does not actually have this ability as an innate, per se--he's just uncontrollable. The "Berserk" ability not only makes a character attack every turn, it boosts his damage by 25-50%. It's a decent alternative to 2-handed if you want to equip a shield but also want extra damage. Or, put this *and* 2-handed on a Bare or Mime for some serious brutality. 2 400 EqAxe Can equip axe The character can equip axes and gets [+21] Vigor. For what it's worth, you'll find an axe late in the game (Thor'sHammer) that is thrown instead of swung and does full damage from the back row. Sorcerer -------- With its amazing speed increase and ability to do severe elemental damage to single targets for very little MP, you'll find yourself using the Sorcerer a lot. Try to have !Sword at whatever level of magic is currently available to you, so you can give it to another class and not lose any effectiveness. Equipping the !Sword ability gives [+14] to Vigor and [+1] to Mag.Pwr. Job Command: Sword Innate Abilities: Magiwall Can equip: Daggers, Light Swords, Shields Stats: Vigor: +14 Speed: +14 Stamina: +14 Mag.Pwr: +1 Total AP to master: 680 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 10 Magiwall Auto-Mbarrier when KO'd The Sorcerer will automatically cast "Shell" on himself, at no MP cost, when he is near KO (stooping over). Okay, but not worth an ability slot. 2 20 !Sword Use Sword Magic up to level 1 The Sorcerer "charges" his sword with the magic chosen, and it is cast at whatever enemy he attacks (in addition to the attack damage). Note that you only need to cast the Sword Magic once, and it will always go off whenever you attack thereafter. This keeps MP costs down a lot. 3 30 !Sword Use Sword Magic up to level 2 Level 2 Sword Magic only includes status ailments: Poison, Mute, and Sleep. It's actually quite a bargain to be able to stick enemies with this kind of stuff *and* get attack damage in too. Keep these in mind for long battles. 4 50 !Sword Use Sword Magic up to level 3 The second-level elemental damage spells (Fire2, Ice2, Bolt2). Great against early-game bosses like Shiva and Biblos that are weak to an element. 5 70 !Sword Use Sword Magic up to level 4 Drain, Break, and Bio. Not all that useful, but Bio Sword will waste enemies weak to poison (what few there are). 6 100 !Sword Use Sword Magic up to level 5 The third-level elemental damage spells (Fire3, Ice3, Bolt3). These will instantly kill some enemies that are weak to the element, such as those annoying robots in the Pyramid. 7 400 !Sword Use Sword Magic up to level 6 Holy, Flare, and Asper. Asper is not that useful because the Sorcerer doesn't use much MP, but Holy and Flare Sword will wreck some of the end-game bosses like Twin Tania. As expensive as it is, don't pass this level up. Skill Classes ============= "Skill" classes (as I've dubbed them) tend to have useful commands and decent attack power, but are typically too weak to fight from the front row. Thankfully, most skill classes can equip long-range weapons that do full damage from the back row. There are a lot of useful abilities amongst the skill classes, so pick at least one character to work with all of them so that you're never caught off-guard. Skill classes can equip only medium helmets and armor. Monk ---- The Monk has the highest HP of any class, and as a result can fight well from the front row even with only medium armor equipped. Be aware that while the Monk seems incredibly powerful early on, his attack power will level off as the game goes on and the other fighting classes continue to upgrade their weapons. !Blue makes a great second ability for a Monk--White Wind works well with the Monk's high HP, and most of the best Blue Magic spells (BlackShock, Blow Fish, Guardian, and White Wind to name a few) don't depend on the user's Mag.Pwr rating in any way. With its immense Vigor and Stamina increases and powerful Counter innate, this is a class well worth mastering. Job Command: Kick The Monk does a flying kick that damages all enemies equally. It generally does too little damage to clear out anything but the smallest weenies, but in the fight against the Dragon Grass in the Valley of Dragons, a Monk's Kick can consistently wipe out the Dragon Bulbs and keep them from troubling you. Innate Abilities: Barefist, Counter Can equip: None Stats: Vigor: +26 Speed: +1 Stamina: +26 Mag.Pwr: -23 Total AP to master: 700 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 15 !Store Save power, 2x attack The Monk spends a turn charging up his chi and attacks for twice the damage shortly after. Useful only if you're looking to really pour on melee damage. 2 30 Barefist Same attack power as Monk This allows you to do Monk-like damage while unarmed. It is basically like an EqX ability, though this will allow you to attack with two punches if you leave both hands empty. The character also gets [+26] to Vigor. 3 45 !Chkra Restore HP/Poison/Dark This is a good early-game healing ability to help keep a character's HP high. It gets less useful as the game goes on since it doesn't heal a lot of HP and can only be cast on the user. 4 60 Counter Counter when attacked The Monk launches a counter-attack whenever he is attacked physically by an enemy. This works well with the Knight's Guard and Cover abilities, and it's definitely worth mastering Monk to pass it on to Bare and Mime as an innate. 5 100 HP+10% Max HP 10% up A whopping 10% HP increase. Can you feel the awesomeness? I can't. 6 150 HP+20% Max HP 20% up I swear, these three are just in there to pad out the AP cost to master the class. 7 300 HP+30% Max HP 30% up There's nothing keeping you from using multiple copies of the same skill, so you could give this to a Mime three times to nearly double his HP! Whee! He won't be able to actually *do* anything, but hey, it's there. Thief ----- The Thief has the best Speed in the game, and several useful abilities. !Steal can get you items before you're "supposed" to have them, if you're patient, and !Flee is great to have in dungeons with irritating enemies. This is an excellent class to master for its innates and Speed attribute. Job Command: Steal Innate Abilities: Secret, Dash, Caution Can equip: Daggers, Special Weapons Stats: Vigor: +1 Speed: +16 Stamina: +2 Mag.Pwr: -6 Total AP to master: 635 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 10 Secret Can find "hidden rooms" This ability will allow you to see secret passages while exploring. Equip it as needed if you're in an area where you know there are hidden passages. 2 20 !Flee Escape quick; no good on some enemies Much faster and more consistent than holding the L/R buttons to run, so equip this as an ability in areas where there are enemies that are just too damned annoying to fight. 3 30 Dash Use Directional Key while holding the O button; 2x speed This ability is actually more annoying than anything in the PSX version, as it turns the manageable and useful O-button dash into a hyper-fast sprint. 4 50 !Steal Steal monster treasure If there's something you really need to steal, change a character to a Thief rather than giving this ability to another class. The Thief's higher Speed rating will increase your chances of successfully stealing. 5 75 Caution Protects against back attack Self-explanatory. A good innate, but not worth using an ability slot on. 6 150 !Mug Attack and steal treasure An upgraded version of Steal that also does damage. 7 300 Footwork Same speed as Thief A character equipped with Footwork gets [+16] Speed. You're probably better off giving the Thief a good second ability than equipping this on another job. Or, use a Bare or Mime, which will get the Speed bonus for free. Ninja ----- The Ninja is almost as fast as the Thief, and can equip two weapons to boot. A good choice if you want damage output (from the back row if you use the Moonring and/or Razor Ring) and a few useful commands. Also, unlike 2-handed, 2-swords will get passed on to the Bare and Mime classes for free, since it's an innate. Job Command: Throw Innate Abilities: Firstatk, 2-swords Can equip: Daggers, Special Weapons Stats: Vigor: +15 Speed: +14 Stamina: +3 Mag.Pwr: -10 Total AP to master: 690 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 10 !Dustb Escape quick; no good on some enemies Identical to the Thief's !Flee ability. 2 30 !Twin Def phys attack 2x The Ninja creates phantom images of himself that will absorb the next two physical attacks directed at him. Having everyone use !Twin is an ideal way to withstand the attacks of Gilgame in the second world's "money cave". 3 50 Firstatk Raises % first attack You'll get pre-emptive attacks more often with this equipped. Like Caution, it's not really worth an ability slot, but is welcome as an innate. 4 150 !Throw Throw/attack with weapon; use with Ninja/shuriken "throw" Man, that in-game description is a mess. Anyway, throwing Shuriken and MagiShuriken does a lot of damage to single targets, and throwing "Skills" yields good elemental damage to one or all targets. It's up to you whether this is worth the cost of buying the "ammo". 5 450 2-swords Hold weapon in each hand; Bow/Harp excluded Not as damage-effective as 2-handed, but almost all the weapons will work with this skill. Give the Ninja two Double Lances for four attacks, or two Razor Rings (you'd have to steal one from a Belfagel) for back row damage. Hunter ------ This rather unassuming class has a few benefits. As a weapon, bows are surprisingly powerful and can be used from the back row with no loss of damage. !Critt can have interesting results, !Aim has its uses, and !Sshot is one of the uber abilities of the game. Job Command: Aim Innate Abilities: None Can equip: Daggers, Bows Stats: Vigor: +16 Speed: +12 Stamina: +1 Mag.Pwr: -5 Total AP to master: 600 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 15 !Critt Call friends from the woods Pretty much all of the !Critt effects you will ever actually see will suck. Supposedly the effects get better as the user gains levels, but I'm sitting near the end at level 40 and the best I've ever seen is Nightingale, which restores a decent chunk of HP to all allies. 2 45 !Aim Raise accuracy An attack that (usually) never misses, !Aim actually has its uses against "evasive" enemies like the Ninjas in the Dimensional Castle. Not something you'll want to equip all the time, but don't forget you have it. 3 135 EqBow Can equip bow This is probably the best EqX ability. Bows are highly damaging, do full damage from the back row, and you'll get [+16] to Vigor and [+12] to Speed when this ability is equipped. 4 405 !Sshot 4x attack Four half-strength attacks, directed at random enemies, like the Offering in FF6. As expected, a great ability and, along with !Sword, essential for beating Omega. Trainer ------- Don't think you can get by without ever using a Trainer. It's a vital class to take advantage of, as the !Cntrl command is the only way to get the best Blue Magics, and it can take even very powerful regular enemies out of a fight completely. A Trainer can even hold his own in a fight, since whips can randomly paralyze enemies and do full damage from the back row. Job Command: Catch/Free Innate Abilities: None Can equip: Daggers, Whips Stats: Vigor: +13 Speed: +1 Stamina: +8 Mag.Pwr: -3 Total AP to master: 460 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 10 !Tame Calm monster Basically has the effect of paralyzing the target for one or two turns. Does not consistently work, so use !Cntrl instead if you want to take a monster out of a fight. 2 50 !Cntrl Control monster One of the most vital abilities in the game. Try it out on everything-- you'll be surprised at what you can control, and once you're controlling a monster, it'll stay under your control until it gets "woken up" by a hit with a physical attack. The success rate is excellent--most enemies can be controlled after only one or two tries, even without the Coronet equipped-- and it has a myriad of uses. Obviously, you could use the monster's own attacks to wipe out all the enemies (just stick to magic, or you'll lose control). Or, you could learn Blue Magic by having the monster cast it on a Blue Mage or someone with the Learning ability in your party. Or, you can just keep the monster out of the fight by having it repeatedly use some rinky-dink ability, then gang up on it when all the other enemies are dead. This is a flexible second ability for just about any job. 3 100 EqWhip Can equip whip Along with EqBow, one of the more useful EqX abilities. The user gets [+13] to Vigor and [+1] to Speed, and whips' abilities to attack from the back row and paralyze enemies make this a decent option for a caster. 4 300 !Catch Catch drunk monster Catching an enemy removes it from the fight and changes the command to !Free. Upon being freed, the enemy will cast one ability and then leave (kind of like a summon spell). An enemy has to be at less than 1/8 of its max HP to be caught, or less than 1/2 HP if user is equipping the KornagoGourd. Catching with the KornagoGourd equipped is a way of removing HP-intensive enemies with only half the work, but be aware that you gain no Exp, AP, or GP from catching a monster. Caster Classes ============== Caster classes, as the name might imply, specialize in using magic. They typically have incredibly high Mag.Pwr, but are average or low in every other stat. The abilities afforded by magic are considerable, but have a second option ready so that a caster can do constructive things in combat that don't use their MP. Some suggestions are "free" healing with the HealingStaff, the !Earth command, or back row attacks with EqWhip or EqBow. Caster classes can equip only light helmets and armor. White Mage ---------- White magic spells are not very strong early on, but late in the game you will find yourself hurting without the ability to cast them. Try to keep your !White level up so that you can use spells like Esna, Cure3, and Arise as soon as they're available. Have the White Mage provide free healing with the HealingStaff while you're building up his/her job level. Equipping the !White ability on another job gives [+25] to Mag.Pwr. Job Command: White Innate Abilities: None Can equip: Staffs Stats: Vigor: -7 Speed: +1 Stamina: 0 Mag.Pwr: +25 Total AP to master: 580 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 10 !White Use White Magic up to level 1 The basic White Magic spells: Cure, Scan, and Antdot. Cure doesn't heal enough HP to be useful even early in the game, so just swap this in when you need to heal poison. 2 20 !White Use White Magic up to level 2 Mute, Protes, and Mini. Protes is helpful against physical attacks, but the other two won't work on anything worth using them on. 3 30 !White Use White Magic up to level 3 This level includes Cure2, Raise, and Muddle. The HealingStaff is a better deal than Cure2 on a single target, but you may want to have Cure2 against enemies that damage everyone at once. And obviously, Raise is a must since Phoenix Downs are astronomically expensive in this game. 4 50 !White Use White Magic up to level 4 Blink, Shell, and Esna. Blink is identical to the Ninja's !Twin ability but can be cast on anyone, and obviously Esna's ability to heal any status ailment (except Zombie) is irreplaceable. 5 70 !White Use White Magic up to level 5 This is where the class really starts to shine. Cure3 is an incredible value, completely healing the HP of one target or healing well over 1000 HP to everyone. Rflect can seriously mess up the plans of magic-using enemies, but remember that you can't cast healing magic on yourself while using it. Bersrk is a cheap way of squeezing some extra damage out of your tanks if you don't plan to have them do anything but attack. 6 100 !White Use White Magic up to level 6 Arise, Holy, and Dispel are all absolutely essential for the end stages of the game. Arise allows you to resurrect a character with full HP so they don't immediately get smacked down again, Holy allows your White Mage to actually do damage, and Dispel will get rid of bosses' annoying buffs. 7 300 MP+10% Max MP 10% up I hate these "filler" abilities that just seem to be in there to drive up the AP cost to master the job. You can get away without actually mastering White Mage if you master Black Mage or Summoner, so just get it up to level 6. Black Mage ---------- It's not that Black Mage is a *bad* job, it's just that its abilities are completely obviated by the abilities of other jobs. Sorcerers can cast all of the good Black Magic spells for a fraction of the MP and do melee damage at the same time. Or, you could use Summon Magic and have a much wider variety of effects available to you. Equipping the !Black ability on another job gives [+31] to Mag.Pwr. Job Command: Black Innate Abilities: None Can equip: Daggers, Rods Stats: Vigor: -9 Speed: 0 Stamina: -2 Mag.Pwr: +31 Total AP to master: 680 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 10 !Black Use Black Magic up to level 1 Fire, Ice, and Bolt. It's really hard to get psyched up for this stuff when you know a Sorcerer can do it easier and cheaper. 2 20 !Black Use Black Magic up to level 2 De-buffs: Poison, Sleep, and Toad. 3 30 !Black Use Black Magic up to level 3 More elemental damage: Fire2, Ice2, Bolt2. Did I mention that the Sorcerer only has to cast his spell once to use it every turn? 4 50 !Black Use Black Magic up to level 4 Drain, Break, and Bio. 5 70 !Black Use Black Magic up to level 5 Fire3, Ice3, Bolt3. It costs the Sorcerer 15 MP to cast these instead of the Black Mage's 25 MP. 6 100 !Black Use Black Magic up to level 6 Flare, Doom, and Asper. Yup, it sure looks cool when the Sorcerer uses his sword to stick an enemy with Flare. 7 400 MP+30% Max MP 30% up More filler. If you're having MP problems, just equip a HairOrnament. Time Mage --------- The Time Mage is the king of buffs and de-buffs, has excellent utility spells like Telepo and Return, and can cast some damage spells to boot. He can even heal by equipping the HealingStaff! You can get away with "swapping in" the !Time ability as needed instead of carrying it around all the time, but keep your job level high so that you can use it without limitation. Equipping the !Time ability on another job gives [+24] to Mag.Pwr. Job Command: Time Innate Abilities: None Can equip: Daggers, Rods, Staffs Stats: Vigor: -5 Speed: +2 Stamina: -3 Mag.Pwr: +24 Total AP to master: 530 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 10 !Time Use Time Magic up to level 1 This includes Speed, Slow, and Regen. Regen is a nice buff, but there are more efficient ways of putting it on your characters. Surprisingly, Slow works on just about everything. Casting it at the beginning of every boss battle is pretty much a no-brainer. 2 20 !Time Use Time Magic up to level 2 Mute, Haste, and Float. There's just no downside to Haste--slap it on all your characters at the beginning of any tough battle. Don't forget you have Float when you go up against earthquaking bosses like Titan and X-Death. Also, be aware that unlike the White Magic version of the spell, the Time magic version of Mute doesn't miss and never wears off. Unfortunately, it also targets everything on the battlefield, including your party. 3 30 !Time Use Time Magic up to level 3 Demi, Stop, and Telepo. The first two rarely work on any enemy worth using them on, but you'll use Telepo a ton in the second and third worlds. That is, unless you *want* to walk all the way back to the entrance of a dungeon after you get what you came for. 4 50 !Time Use Time Magic up to level 4 Comet is a cheap attack spell, but is unreliable due to inconsistent damage. Obviously, being able to slow all the enemies at once with Slow2 is nice. The real star of this level is Return, which lets you time-travel back to the beginning of the battle that you're in. It's great for taking another, fresh shot at a boss once after learning what it can do, and is *required* if you want to steal the Protect Ring that Odin holds. 5 70 !Time Use Time Magic up to level 5 Demi2, Haste2, Old. Haste2 alone is worth the price of admission, letting your caster Haste everyone in one shot and then get on with healing, nuking, singing, or whatever. 6 100 !Time Use Time Magic up to level 6 Meteo, Quick and X-Zone are included. I didn't play around with X-Zone too much, but it could be a way of cheaply getting rid of annoying/powerful enemies if they're not immune to it. Meteo tends to fizzle much like Comet does, but since it drops four meteors instead of one, it's still good against single targets. Finally, Quick can only be used on the caster, but it immediately gives them two actions in a row! Its MP cost keeps it from being usable in too degenerate a fashion, but the potential of combining it with !Sshot, !Redx2, and many other abilities, is frightening. 7 250 EqRod Can equip rod Apparently this is some sort of joke. Summoner -------- Though it's expensive to do so, Summoner is the caster class most worth mastering. The !Summn command provides a variety of effects, the class has the highest Mag.Pwr in the game, and the !Call ability is at least of some use during random battles. The drawback of the Summoner is that virtually all of his spells require some sort of sub-quest to acquire. Give a Summoner !Earth as you build through the levels, to take advantage of his huge Mag.Pwr and to give him something to do that doesn't cost MP. Equipping the !Summn ability on another job gives [+33] to Mag.Pwr. Job Command: Summn Innate Abilities: None Can equip: Daggers, Rods Stats: Vigor: -10 Speed: -1 Stamina: -1 Mag.Pwr: +33 Total AP to master: 750 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 15 !Summn Use Summon Magic up to level 1 Like all the level 1 spells, there's nothing very good here. Sylph is the best spell at this level since it heals your characters as well as damaging an enemy. 2 30 !Summn Use Summon Magic up to level 2 This level includes the bread-and-butter elemental attack summons Shiva, Ramuh, and Ifrit. Don't miss the sub-quests that get you these summons if you're looking to use this job to the exclusion of Black Mage. 3 45 !Summn Use Summon Magic up to level 3 Titan does good damage (just not to anything that flies), but the real star of this level (and possibly of the entire Summoner spell list) is Golem. Summon Golem and it will absorb the next 10000 or so (yes, you're reading that right) physical damage that's dealt to your characters. Don't miss the stupidly obscure side-quest that gets you Golem, unless you want to build your characters about 10 levels higher to compensate! 4 60 !Summn Use Summon Magic up to level 4 You can't go wrong with either of the attack spells on this level. Odin can kill all of your enemies instantly; if they're immune, he'll still pick one and do damage to it. Hydra just does a solid chunk of damage to everything. 5 100 !Summn Use Summon Magic up to level 5 Phoenix, Leviathan, and Bahamut are all simply amazing spells. Phoenix does damage to all enemies *and* resurrects an ally of your choosing with full HP! Bahamut does a ton of non-elemental damage to all enemies, and depending on the type of enemy, Leviathan can do as much or more than Bahamut, for a lower MP cost. Having these on tap for the final battle is a no-brainer. 6 500 !Call Use summon w/o MP; anything could happen Using !Call gets you a summon spell chosen at random (I don't know if it's from all the summons or only the ones you actually own). The casting doesn't cost any MP, but figure you'll get useless crap like Chocobo twice as often as something like Bahamut. Also, "utility" summons are not immune, so you will see Golem (good) and Carbuncle (usually bad) when using this. Geomancer --------- Be sure to learn the !Earth ability immediately upon getting this class; it's an abolutely vital skill for a caster, allowing them to do damage and magical effects without using MP. Beyond that, you can afford to use the Geomancer only when you need its innate abilities to find trap doors and avoid damage from lava and such. Oh, and don't get excited by the bell's ability to attack from the back row--they do pathetic damage. Job Command: Earth Innate Abilities: Findhole, Antitrap Can equip: Daggers, Bells Stats: Vigor: +4 Speed: +2 Stamina: +4 Mag.Pwr: +24 Total AP to master: 175 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 25 !Earth Attack enemy with natural power This is the perfect ability to have on a caster during random battles. While the effects typically do small to moderate amounts of damage to one or all enemies, once in a while you'll get something cool like a Doom Claw effect or instant death effect. !Earth doesn't use any MP and its potency is based on the user's Mag.Pwr, making it even better in the hands of the other casters. 2 50 Findhole Can find trap doors You can get away with just equipping this in areas where there are trap doors. Walk slowly, one tile at a time, as the traps won't be revealed until you try to walk on them. 3 100 Antitrap No damage on damage floors The utility of this is obvious--bring in a Geomancer or give someone this ability whenever there's a surface like lava that does damage as you walk across it. Bard ---- The Bard is pretty much a useless class, except for the Requiem song, which does a huge amount of damage to any undead-type enemies. Bring along a Bard (or give someone the !Sing command) whenever you're in an undead-infested area like the Pyramid, to breeze through it (relatively speaking). Like bells, harps do pathetic damage, even if it's long-ranged. Job Command: Sing Innate Abilities: None Can equip: Daggers, Harps Stats: Vigor: -8 Speed: +8 Stamina: -9 Mag.Pwr: +11 Total AP to master: 175 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 25 !Hide Evade attack when hidden Shades of Edward from FF4, and just as useless, since you can't heal the Bard while he's hiding. 2 50 EqHarp Can equip harp [+8] to Speed and [+11] to Mag.Pwr come with this. Interestingly, harp damage is always a fixed fraction (1/16 to 3/16, depending on the harp) of the target's remaining HP. This is almost always a pathetic amount. 3 100 !Sing Sing Magic song As I described above, Requiem is the best of the Bard's songs. Str.Song puts Regen on all your characters and is of some use; Love Song and TemptSong confuse and paralyze enemies. The remaining songs continuously buff your party but tie up the Bard, who sings the song chosen until the end of the fight (or he gets killed, I guess). The inability to change or stop the song makes the "buff songs" a novelty at best, but LVL Song is worth using against the not-so-threatening first form of the final boss. You'll then retain your pumped-up status when you go into the fight with his final form. Hybrid Classes ============== Hybrid classes are sort of "catch-all" jobs that don't really fall clearly under any other heading. As the name might suggest, they have elements of caster and skill classes, including magic or magic-like skills. Hybrid classes have the weakest overall stats, but they have a lot of skills that are hard to pass up. Hybrid classes can wear light or medium helmets and light or medium armor. Because of this flexibility, it's easy for a character that's specializing in skill or caster classes to branch out into one or more hybrid classes as well. Blue Mage --------- Blue Magic affords you a ton of flexbility by giving you access to buffs, de-buffs, healing, and attack spells all under one command. Blue Magic is so versatile, in fact, that you may want to have two or more characters master this class (or at least earn enough AP to get the !Blue command). The catch, of course, is that you have to learn the spells from enemies. Even though Blue Mages can equip swords and shields, their poor Vigor ensures that they do pathetic damage, even from the front row. They do get a caster-like Mag.Pwr boost, though, so !Earth is an option. Job Command: Blue Innate Abilities: Learning Can equip: Daggers, Light Swords, Rods, Shields Stats: Vigor: -8 Speed: +1 Stamina: +3 Mag.Pwr: +23 Total AP to master: 350 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 10 !Check Get enemy HP/weakness The kind of command that's only useful if you don't have a FAQ around. It's nice to know exactly what you're up against, but is it really worth passing up something that could actually help you *kill* it? 2 20 Learning Learn monster special attacks The character that gets hit by a learnable enemy skill must either have this equipped (or be a Blue Mage) to learn it. If you have a FAQ that calls out the Blue Magics for you, then you can just take this on and off as needed. 3 70 !Blue Use Blue Magic Gives [+23] to Mag.Pwr and the ability to cast any Blue Magic that's been learned by the party. The best Blue Magics are very expensive, but have great effects. Aqua Rake is one of the only water-elemental attack spells in the game and does good damage to all enemies; Black Shock is a brutal de-buff that cuts an enemy's level in half, reducing all of its stats; Guardian is an awesome buff that puts Protes, Shell, and Float on your entire party, and finally, White Wind heals all of the party members according to how much HP the caster has. White Wind is especially strong in the hands of a Monk and his huge max HP. 4 250 !View See enemy's level/HP/weakness/condition A more powerful form of !Check that suffers from the same limitations. I don't believe that this tells you anything more than the Scan spell does. Red Mage -------- The Red Mage is at his most powerful and flexible very early in the game and very late in the game. The !Red command allows you to use both Black and White Magic, but only up to level 3; after that, you will probably want to set this class aside until you're able to gain the huge amount of AP necessary for !Redx2. As far as its capabilities in a fight are concerned, the Red Mage may seem attractive for its ability to equip swords, but the job's low Stamina keeps it from being any type of fighter. You'd be better served giving the HealingStaff to the Red Mage. Equipping the !Red or !Redx2 ability on another job gives [+8] to Mag.Pwr. Job Command: Red Innate Abilities: None Can equip: Daggers, Light Swords, Rods, Staffs Stats: Vigor: +8 Speed: +5 Stamina: -6 Mag.Pwr: +8 Total AP to master: 1159 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 20 !Red Use White and Black Magic up to level 1 Obviously, this is more attractive than being able to use only one or the other type of magic; just be aware that the Red Mage's low Mag.Pwr means that his spells will not be as potent as a White or Black Mage's. 2 40 !Red Use White and Black Magic up to level 2 Ah, the level of the lame de-buffs. Blow right past this on your way to... 3 100 !Red Use White and Black Magic up to level 3 The 100 AP cost is pretty steep for early in the game, but that's the time to gain this skill. The ability to cast Cure2, Raise, and the second line of elemental damage spells with one command is a huge asset in the first world. However, this magic is no substitute for the more powerful spells that become available in the second world. 4 999 !Redx2 Back to back spells The way this skill works needs a little explanation. !Redx2 allows the user to cast two spells each turn, but the only spells that come "for free" are White and Black Magic up to level 3. If you want to doublecast Sword, Time, or Summon Magic, or higher level White or Black Magic, you'll have to equip the appropriate magic ability at the appropriate level. This eats up your ability slots very quickly, so only a Mimic can really get a lot from this command. If you want to go for this ability, I would highly suggest waiting until the final dungeon, where you can earn 25-35 AP per battle. Chemist ------- Probably the most unconventional of the FF5 jobs, the Chemist uses items to heal and boost the stats of himself and his allies, as well as attack. While some of the job's commands are good, it's rarely useful to have an actual Chemist in the party, because the job's stats are very weak overall and the !Drink command can only target the caster. This job is another good candidate to equip the HealingStaff. Job Command: Drink Innate Abilities: Medicine Can equip: Daggers, Staffs Stats: Vigor: +2 Speed: +3 Stamina: +6 Mag.Pwr: -4 Total AP to master: 630 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 15 Medicine 2x Potion/Ether Another ability that's good for an innate but not worth a slot, Medicine causes any HP or MP healing items used by the character to have twice the effect. 2 30 !Mix Make new elixir in battle from 2 old ones The results of your concoction are determined by a simple table that you can find in most FAQs. Be aware that the command will choose an ally as the default target, even if the result will be a damage effect. You can get many interesting effects from this command if you take the time to master the various combinations. While very few of them are actually any good, one result can downright break the game--see "!Mix Weirdness" at the end. 3 45 !Drink Power Drink This command lets you use the Giant Drink, Hard Body, Hero Drink, Power Drink, and Speed Drink. They're very helpful, but only work on the user, and since it's not really any help to have a super-buff Chemist running around, give !Drink to a class that's physically strong in the first place. You'll get a lot more bang for your buck from the potions this way. 4 135 !Recvr Recover from various conditions This is a good way to counter enemies that use a lot of status attacks. Just make sure that the person with the skill also has either an Angel Robe or a Ribbon, so that they don't get afflicted themselves. 5 405 !Rvive Restore KO'd ally Junk. While it revives all KO'd allies and does so for no MP cost, they come back with almost no HP and will certainly just get smacked down immediately. Dancer ------ Another very quirky class, the Dancer has a lot of potential as a damage- dealer, but requires a certain set of equipment to live up to it. The "dancer gear" doesn't appear until near the end of the game, so you can wait until then if you want to use this job seriously. Job Command: Dance Innate Abilities: None Can equip: Dagger Stats: Vigor: +5 Speed: +5 Stamina: -10 Mag.Pwr: -5 Total AP to master: 400 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 25 !Flirt Thwart an attack by "arousing" your enemy Ooh la la. I guess this is supposed to confuse the enemy; I'm not sure because I've never seen it actually work. 2 50 !Dance Dance the forbidden dance You'll get one of four effects at random after choosing !Dance and the target. "Temptango" confuses the enemy and seems to work consistenly (or maybe it only goes off when it will work). "Jitterbug" and "Wonderwaltz" drain HP or MP from the target respectively; the latter would be a neat way for a caster to regain MP, but you can't ever count on it because it's random. The one you probably want to see is "Sword Dance", which causes the Dancer to do an attack for four times normal damage. You can increase the chances of Sword Dance showing up by equipping the Prism Dress and Red Shoes. You'll get it about 3/4 of the time with both equipped, turning !Dance into a powerhouse attack. 3 325 EqRibbon Can equip ribbon This actually allows the character to equip *all* of the Dancer-exclusive equipment (Man-eater, Ribbon, Prism Dress, and Red Shoes). Necessary if you want to successfully bring !Dance to the Mime class. Special Classes =============== Finally, the two exceptions. Bare and Mime are different from the other jobs in that they don't have job commands, innate abilities, or attribute increases of their own; instead, they have multiple skill slots and possess the innate abilities and stat increases of any other jobs the character has mastered. So that means a character that has mastered all of the warrior classes will have the Cover, Swrdgrab, and Magiwall abilities as a Bare or Mime, without having to equip them. Similarly, the highest attribute bonus of any job the character has mastered will be transferred to Bare and Mime. Negative modifiers won't be transferred. So using the same example as above, our uber-tank would have +23 to Vigor (from Knight), +14 to Speed (from Sorcerer), +25 to Stamina (from Berserker), and +1 to Mag.Pwr (also from Sorcerer) as a Bare or Mime. Taking this to its logical conclusion, the classes to master for ideal Bare and Mime stats are Monk (+26 to Vigor and Stamina), Thief (+16 Speed), and Summoner (+33 Mag.Pwr). Other options, just for the sake of variety, are Knight (+23 Vigor), Ninja and Sorcerer (+14 Speed), Berserker (+25 Stamina), and Black Mage (+31 Mag.Pwr). Because they have few or no skills to learn, Bare and Mime are best suited for the end stages of the game, when you want to amass your party's full power against the last few bosses. Mime ---- The Mime is the only job without the default !Fight and !Item commands. Instead, the Mime only has !Mimic, and three empty slots. !Fight and !Item are added to the ability list if you want to use one or more of them as well. At first, this might seem a better option than Bare because of its three ability slots, but be aware that the Mime cannot equip the Dancer-exclusive gear (including the all-important Ribbon!) without using EqRibbon. It can equip all other armor, helmets, and accessories. Job Command: Mimic Innate Abilities: From other jobs (see above) Can equip: Daggers, Rods, Staffs, Shields, Special Weapons Stats: From other jobs (see above) Total AP to master: 999 Lvl AP Ability Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 999 !Mimic Mimic preceding command The Mime will copy the last ally's action. This includes defending, so it can be really hard to set up a long chain of double Bahamut summons (or whatever) if your characters' actions don't order up just so. Mimicing a spell costs no MP, but mimicing the use of an item will use up another item. Mimicing !Critt, !Dance, or !Earth will result in a random effect, not (necessarily) the same exact effect. Mimicing !$toss will use up money. Also note that the power of mimiced actions such as attacks or magic depends on the mimicing character's attributes. Bare ---- The "default" class of Final Fantasy V, which all the characters start in. It has the !Fight and !Item commands like all the other jobs, but two empty ability slots. It's most attractive for its ability to equip all of the game's weapons and armor. Since it has no abilities to learn, the Bare class does not earn AP. Against the final boss, I highly advise changing all your characters to Bare, with the best abilities you have available. Job Command: None Innate Abilities: From other jobs (see above) Can equip: All weapons and armor Stats: From other jobs (see above) +-----------------------------+ | IV. Putting It All Together | +-----------------------------+ I organized the jobs according to what they can equip for a reason: you can save yourself a lot of hassle, and bounce around between jobs easily and rapidly, if you have each character only use jobs of one type. For example, you could have two characters only use the warrior classes, one character use the skill and hybrid classes, and one character use the caster and hybrid classes. With this strategy, you would only have to carry two heavy armors and helmets, one medium armor and helmet, and one light armor and helmet. You'll still need to carry one or two of each type of weapon, but having a minimum of "contingency gear", at least on the armor/helmet side, saves tons of money and time. Of course, this is just one suggestion. You can mix the job types as you see fit, so long as you make sure you use them all. This also has the benefit of giving you a well-rounded party that can use all the abilities at the end of the game. Base Character Attributes ========================= The five player characters actually have slightly different base attributes. The differences are very small, but if you're the type that wants every edge you can get, you can tailor your job group choices to particular characters based on their attributes. Name Vigor Speed Stamina Mag.Pwr ---------------------------------------------------- Bartz 28 25 27 25 Reina 25 26 25 28 Galuf/Krile 27/25 24/28 28/24 24/27 Faris 27 27 26 26 As you can see, Bartz's high Vigor and Stamina make him a good candidate for the warrior jobs. Galuf also makes an excellent tank, but bear in mind that he's replaced by Krile about halfway through the game. She has much different attributes, so if you choose this strategy, plan accordingly. Personally, I would train them in skill and hybrid classes to take advantage of Krile's high Speed. Reina is ideal for caster jobs, as she has the highest Mag.Pwr; Faris has well-rounded attributes and can handle anything. Special Bonus Secion: The 4th Protect Ring ========================================== By far the best all-around accessory, the Protect Ring gives the wearer +10 to Defense, +10 to Magic Defense, *and* puts them in Regen status. There are exactly four to be found, though getting one of them will take some work. First the easy ones: chests in the Pyramid, Island Shrine, and Easterly Falls lithograph sites. The last one is held by Odin in the basement of Val Castle. It is *extremely difficult* to successfully steal from Odin, and this is compounded by the time limit on the battle. For this reason, some careful choosing of job classes and commands is necessary. Make one character a Thief, and give her the Thief's Glove and any gear that will increase her Speed. This character needs to have the highest Speed in the party. The next fastest character needs to be able to use Blue Magic (for the Guardian spell) and Time Magic up to level 4 (for Return). Ideally, you should do this by giving !Blue to a Time Mage, because Haste2, while not required, will help a lot. The remaining two characters simply need to be able to do damage (Samurai with 2-handed work well) or cast the !Sword spell Break. When the battle begins, immediately have your Thief steal (since she will be acting first). If she is unsuccessful, have the Time Mage (whose turn should come up next) cast Return. Repeat this until the Thief successfully steals; it may take several dozen tries, so don't space out. When the Thief finally does steal the Protect Ring, have the Time Mage cast Guardian instead so that you don't immediately get wasted by VengSwrd. After that, just pour on the damage as fast as you can and heal the damage Odin does. Or, you can just be cheap: the Break spell works on Odin, so you can kill him instantly by using the Break sword magic. The Black Magic version can work too, but will usually miss; the Sword Magic version will always get him. If you want to beat him without using Break, I'd advise a "trial run" before this process to make sure you have the power to deplete Odin's HP within the time limit. It's your call whether a complete set of Protect Rings is worth all this trouble. But I thought I'd include this as an example of how to make the job system work for you and for those completists out there. Super Special Bonus Section: !Mix Weirdness =========================================== I just thought this was too weird not to include, and I know there are some people out there who get a kick out of this kind of stuff. Alex Jackson (awj_in_japan@hotmail.com) has clued me in on a lot of FF5 nuances, the most bizarre of which is a particular abuse of the !Mix command. I'll reprint what he told me, since I've yet to try doing it firsthand. There are spoilers below, so don't read this until after you've finished the game. "If you mix a Maiden's Kiss and a Holy Water, you'll get an effect which puts nearly every buffing spell in the game on the target simultaneously... including Berserk. For some reason (possibly because all those multiple effects are being applied at one) the game doesn't bother to check that the target actually should be affectable by each of those buffs. The upshot of this is that you can but the Berserk status on any enemy in the game. "You can combine this with the "Knight lockout" or !Twin abuse to defeat, say, Omega easily, but that's not much fun after the first time you do it. What is fun is that Berserking the enemy in a "story battle" (i.e. a battle which gets interrupted by dialogue or something of the sort partway through) really confuses the game. Apparently, all special events in battles (even dialogue spoken by your party members) are treated by the program as actions performed by the enemy, so if you Berserk the enemy these events just won't happen any more (since the enemy can't do anything but attack). "If you Berserk Ramuh (or Shoat or Golem), the internal flag that the game sets to indicate that you've already gotten them doesn't get set, so you can fight them again and again. If you Berserk Gilgamesh in X-Death's castle in World 2, he'll never get X-Zoned away by X-Death, so you can actually kill him yourself (he'll still appear in the final dungeon, though). Weirdest of all, if you Berserk the final X-Death, he won't be able to transform into Neo X-Death. When you deplete his HP, the game will apparently freeze for a while, and then abruptly jump straight into the ending movie (or possibly just freeze forever... the exact behavior may vary depending on the game version)." Weird, wild stuff. Thanks Alex! +-----------------------------+ | V. Credits & Copyright Info | +-----------------------------+ That's all I've got. Drop me a line at connoy@lycos.com and let me know if any of this has been of help to you, or if you have any suggestions! Thanks to the following for their help: CJayC, for maintaining www.gamefaqs.com. Alex Jackson (awj_in_japan@hotmail.com), for information on the "Knight lockout", !Sword effects, using !Twin against Gilgame, the differences between the two Mute spells, the utility of Slow, harp damage, !Singing in the final battle, glitching the game with !Mix, and !Breaking Odin. Matt Hobbs and Dragon Fogel, for the best FFV walkthrough out there. Ideally organized, it tells you everything that you need to know. And, just as importantly, very little that you don't. Basil Brush, for his efficient list of FFV gear, monsters, and spells. David Cassady, whose Final Fantasy Anthology Strategy Guide made a great scratch pad for my notes on how the game *really* works. Finally, the copyright warning, reprinted with the gracious permission of Kao Megura. Take it seriously or suffer. Unpublished Work Copyright 2003 Dave Connoy This FAQ and everything included within this file cannot be reproduced in any way, shape or form (physical, electronical, or otherwise) aside from being placed on a freely-accessible, non-commercial web page in it's original, unedited and unaltered format. This FAQ cannot be used for profitable purposes (even if no money would be made from selling it) or promotional purposes. It cannot be used in any sort of commercial transaction. It cannot be given away as some sort of bonus, gift, etc., with a purchase as this creates incentive to buy and is therefore prohibited. Furthermore, this FAQ cannot be used by the publishers, editors, employees or associates, etc. of any company, group, business, or association, etc., nor can it be used by game sites and the like. It cannot be used in magazines, guides, books, etc. or in any other form of printed or electronic media (including mediums not specifically mentioned) in ANY way, shape, or form (including reprinting, reference or inclusion), without the express written permission of the author, myself. This FAQ was created and is owned by me, Dave Connoy. All copyrights and trademarks are acknowledged and respected that are not specifically mentioned in this FAQ. To continue, this FAQ and everything included herein is protected by the Berne Copyright Convention of 1976, not to mention International Copyright Law. Please remember that plagiarism is against the law. I will take appropriate action against transgressors, period (the same goes for people who put this up on web pages claiming it's their FAQ).