Final Fantasy V Walkthrough

Written by Djibriel

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1.17: The Battle with Shiva

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Enemies: Elf Toad, Ice Soldier, Jackanapes, Ice Commander, Shiva

Blue Magic: Pond's Chorus, Moon Flute

Shiva is an Ice spirit sealed within the castle by the purified water of the Water Crystal. How exactly a flexible matter such as water could ever be used to seal anything is beyond any guess, though. Shiva is waiting for you in one of the towers of the castle.

Enter the castle, descend to the lower floor and leave this room through the door to the south. Outside, you have the option of walking into the water. Do so. To the top, there's a waterfall. It's concealing the entrance to the water tower of castle Walse, so enter in the middle to find it.

The enemies here are ones you've already seen earlier and know how to deal with.

Burn the soldiers, freeze the toads, steal some Sword

Mythril Swords if you could use some cash.

Now, simply ascend the Water Tower until you reach what is quite obviously the resting place of Shiva herself. The impossible green-flame energy sphere thing? That's her, all-right. Interact with it to allow Shiva to speak for herself. Naturally assuming you're wanting to dominate her, she attacks you. Before you engage her, by the way, make sure that you have two characters in the Front Row and two in the Back Row, regardless of their Job.

Shiva Bestiary #249	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP	Speed
	Humanoid	11	1500	1000	0	0	25
	Strength	Attack Mult.	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	40	6	0	0	0	0	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Phoenix Down			Common: Frost Rod
	Command Immunities			Elemental Immunities
	Catch, Control			None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Blue Magic			Status Immunities
	None
	Strategy
	It's far easier to defeat Shiva and her cronies once you have Fira. Without it, Blue magic is your best bet. Either way, consider using Flash and Pond's Chorus first to disable the Ice Commanders. For more details on winning with or without Fira, see Walkthrough chapter 1.17.

Ice Commander Bestiary #248	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP	Speed
	Humanoid	11	1500	1000	0	0	25
	Strength	Attack Mult.	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	40	6	0	0	0	0	10
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Hi-Potion Rare: Phoenix Down			Common: Frost Rod
	Command Immunities			Elemental Immunities
	Catch, Control			None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Blue Magic			Status Immunities
	None
	Strategy
	It's far easier to defeat Shiva and her cronies once you have Fira. Without it, Blue magic is your best bet. Either way, consider using Flash and Pond's Chorus first to disable the Ice Commanders. For more details on winning with or without Fira, see Walkthrough chapter 1.17.

Shiva is surrounded by a whole slew of Ice Commanders, too. These are all of the same elemental type as Shiva, so they absorb Ice and are weak to Fire-elemental attacks. You can steal Sword

Mythril Swords from them, and they rarely drop a Sword

Long Sword after the fight, so they're basically just Ice Soldiers with a different name, without the random Ice spellcasting and a whole lot more durability. They're vulnerable to everything from

Pond's Chorus,

Flash,

Sleep to

Poison. The fight isn't over until you've killed them too, so might as well start attacking them now.

Shiva herself knows only two attacks, and they're both

Blizzara. Every odd turn she will target every character in the Front Row, every even turn she'll target every Back Row character with it. It's that simple.

Fira Strategy

How to deal with this? First, let loose with any status ailment-inducing attacks you might have. The !Blue

Flash attack is a wise idea, as is an multi-target !Black

Sleep spell. You likely won't hit all of the Commanders, but you'll be glad to get some of the physical violence out of the way. If you have a !Time caster, the

Slow spell works on Shiva but it's not very important. Now, power up any Mystic Knights you might have with a

Fira spell on their sword and get the show started. Pick apart the snoozing and/or blinded Commanders first. Multitargeted, it takes only two

Fira spells to kill them, and that doesn't need a Rod

Flame Rod. A slash with a

Fira sword does a lot of damage, and with Two-Handed it's almost an affront to God.

The same goes for Shiva. Keep yourselves healed (took me hours to come up with this brilliant strategy, let me tell ya) and dish out the damage. If your level is 11, a !Blue

Goblin Punch definitely hurts, and anything Fire-related is obviously a good idea. Before long, Shiva'll be defeated and your Summoner will obtain to power to summon Shiva.

Non-Fira Strategy

Without having gone to Karnak, you don't have the

Fira spell yet, you can't cast it on your swords and you haven't obtained the defense upgrade either, so it's all a little difficult. Strategy is vital here. If you have Rod

Flame Rods and aren't scared of breaking them, feel free to disregard all the text below, of course... Before you engage, make sure the Front Row/Back Row ratio is 2/2, and have a !Blue caster and a !White caster.

Start the battle off with

Flash from the !Blue caster. Don't attack yet, just keep yourself healed. Now, hit the Commanders with

Pond's Chorus (and possibly

Sleep spells to stall until you can hit them with

Pond's Chorus). After Shiva is surrounded by three frogs, you've quickly eliminated the physical threat. Now, start attacking Shiva. If your party is primarily physical nature at this point, it' might be a good idea to clear out the Commanders first to remove the Back Row advantage of Shiva.

If you don't have

Flash and

Pond's Chorus either you're probably either stuck breaking Rod

Flame Rods or seriously looking at going to Karnak anyway, as while I'm sure some asian dude could figure out a way to defeat Shiva without

Fira OR !Blue spells, I'm not going to try for you.

When you're done, time to get to Karnak. Try out Shiva versus the random encounters there; Ice Soldiers will absorb Shiva's attack but that's all.

A thing to consider; a Hammer

Mythril Hammer Two-Handed Berserker is capable of killing a Jackanapes (this is due to the fact that Axes only consider 25% of the target's Defense). So even if you don't want to flee the 2 x 1000 Gil, Drag spell and Accessory

Elven Mantle are obtainable. It's going to cost you quite a lot of Phoenix Downs and luck, though.

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Caves of Narshe: Final Fantasy V
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