Final Fantasy V Walkthrough
Written by Djibriel
Contributor
1.34: The Flying Floating Ruins
Enemies: La Mage, RonkaKnigt, Stoned Mask, Fan Wizard, Lamia, ArcheoToad, Hyudra, Aquaus, Archeoavis
Treasures: 2000 Gil, 
Ancient Sword, Cottage, Elixir, Ether, 
GoldArmor, 
Gold Shield, 
Moon Ring, 
Power Wrist, Shuriken
Blue Magic: 
Flash, Aero2, WhitWind, BlowFish, ToadSong, Potion, 
L4 Qrtr
WhitWind...WhitWind, I love you) and the monsters are tougher than anything you've seen so far. As for strategies, it's nice to have the following. You can Steal two nice items, though they are a rare steal. !Earth will often use either Wind Slash or Sonic Boom, both of which are very useful. Wind Slash especially has great offensive capacities versus everything but the Fan Wizards and the Aquaus enemies. !Critt will have a decent (40%-ish) percent of summoning a Nightingale which heals a decent amount. The other results are also helpful. Having a character summoning Animals all the time will pretty much take care of the defensive aspect of the dungeon.La Mages cast level 2 elemental spells:
Fire2, Ice2 and Bolt2, always on the entire party. They're quickly disposed of with physical attacks. They may rarely drop an Elixir, though their common Steal Poet Robe is less than stellar.RonkaKnigt are meatshields and fairly proficient at it as well. They'll often survive a single shot of even your most powerful attacks and while they don't cast any lethal spells their physical attacks, especially !Sling, hurt when absorbed in succession. A common Potion Steal is worth a shot, they're pretty good at this point of the game. They're vulnerable to Mini, which completely shuts them down; in addition, they have 20% Evasion but cannot evade Aerial attacks so Whips and Bows will never miss.
Stoned Masks attack physically only and will never use
Flash normally, unlike their Stone counterparts. They'll be able to cast the spell when Controlled though, so if you still haven't learned the attack this is another opportunity.Fan Wizard is a feast for your party. They're annoying to fight due to the fact they absorb what's pretty much your best attack at this point - !Earth's Wind Slash - but they make up for it in resource potential. First off, they randomly drop
Dark Bows, which are stronger Bows for your Hunters which sets Darkness 2/3 of the time when possible. Second, they'll often use Aero2, so if you didn't pick up the Blue spell from either Page 32 or Gigas, here's where you can hardly avoid it. Lastly but most importantly, Fan Wizards wield the mighty WhitWind, a healing spell for your Blue Mage which heals the entire party for the amount of the caster's current HP. You'll need to 
Muddle or Control them to have them cast it on your Learning character(s), though.Lamia also has two fabulous prizes for you, though both are harder to obtain. There's the Blue spell
BlowFish, which causes 1000 HP damage every casting. However, since it's an offensive spell there's only one way to learn it; by means of the Trainer's !Cntrl. Have Lamia cast it on him/her, revive the Learning character and you're set. The second one is an awesome piece of headgear: the 
Lamia's Tiara. It's got 1 more Defense than the Plumed Hat, 5 more Magic Defense and raises the character's Magic Power by 3. In addition, it can only be worn by Magic Jobs. It also boosts the success rate of Sword Dance coming out of the !Dance ability, but since you have no access to it yet it shouldn't matter at this point. It's but a rare Steal though, and if you take a moment to think back to the horror of obtaining EarthRobe and/or the 
Javelin, this'll be just like it. Lamia, on the offense, will try to use Entice on your male characters (she'll see through Faris' deceptive clothing and never target her) to set Muddle and may !Slap a person as well.Quick note on
BlowFish; not even regarding the fact that 1000 damage is quite decent at these levels, the spell will always work. This means that it's a great way of damaging those pesky unkillables; SkullEaters, Prototypes, Harpy, you name it.ArcheoToad is pretty much an Elf Toad on steroids. Weak to Ice-elemental attacks like other lizards. It'll randomly use
ToadSong, so you can learn it if you haven't earlier; just make sure you've got some Maiden'sKisses lying around. An unassuming enemy.Hyudra is the light-greenish multi-headed dragon. It's more or less Lightning- elemental; it absorbs the element and may use Lightning every even turn. Remember Lightning, the max HP/4-damage dealer much like Blaze and Breath Wing? Hyudra's are remarkably sturdy but pose little threat overall as their attacks aren't all too powerful. They can drop a rare Dragon Fang, but for your sanity's sake, don't try.
L5 Doom works nicely to take them out in a single shot.I'm going to tackle Aquaus in a special way, because there are so many things notable about it. It's a very strong monster that holds treasure.
- Aquaus absorbs all elements except for Fire and Holy. In addition, it is inherently Reflective. Damaging a Aquaus calls for physical attacks, Flame Thrower or BlowFish. Be careful with weapons that cast random spells (
Shock Whip, Ancient Sword and most importantly the 
Death Sickle) as those spells will be Reflected onto your party. Also note that a Aquaus can not be Controlled. The Aquaus is Undead, so you can use Potions to damage it. This dragon is the worst nuisance on the beach! - Aquaus will use physical attacks, Lightning and Poison Breath, an multi-target Poison-elemental attack that may set the status ailment. It's power is more or less random as it can deliver between 10 and 100% of its full potential. - When a Aquaus dies, it'll cast L4 Qrtr, a Blue spell which reduces the current HP of every struck target by 75%. However, it'll only hit targets whose level is divisible by 4, so if your Blue Mage wants to learn the attack it better have an appropriate level. The Aquaus will not use the attack if it is Paralyzed when it dies.
- You can Steal a rare from Aquaus; it's an even better bow than the Dark Bow which has an 8% chance of flat-out killing the target. Good luck on that one.
- The Aquaus is vulnerable to Paralyze, so a Whip or the Remora spell can halt it while you're pounding on it. Make sure to keep track of its HP though, since if you want to learn L4 Qrtr the Aquaus shouldn't be Paralyzed upon defeat. Darkness also works.
If you manage to learn
L4 Qrtr, note that it works on RonkaKnigt, Fan Wizards, Lamias as well as Stoned Masks. Sweet!Pass through the first room. On the second level, there are invisible stepping tiles. They're entirely logical as you can see where they start (where the grassy bits aren't there), but you can use the Thief's Passage ability to actually see them. There's also a chest containing a
GoldArmor. Finally, we can get our Heavy Armor characters in actual Heavy Armor again!On the third level there's a chest you can reach only by some less-than-logical stepping tiles. It contains an Elixir; I kinda recommend the Find Passages ability here. Cross to the other side of the room to see three exits here. Go to the far right (chest!) which takes you to a chest with a
Gold Shield. Equip it if you can (30% Evasion...it's almost as good as an Elf Cloak now!). Get back to the split. The one leading into the middle of a wall takes you to a Save Point, so that makes only the remaining one the one to take.The path takes you quite easily to a new chest containing a Potion in the end. Another split now; there's a door and a stairway. The stairway takes you to treasure! The treasure room has trap holes in it, which are the center and center-right tiles in front of the inverted "v" shape of the chests.
The chests contain, from left to right, 2000 Gil, a Shuriken, an
Ancient Sword, another Moon Ring and a Power Wrist. The Ancient Sword has a 33% chance of casting Old (sets the ailment) while the Power Wrist simply raises Strength by 3. It's not really that noticeable (maybe a damage increase of 10%) but it has superior Defense to your current 'Light' Relics.Get back and go through the door. It's all straight-forward for a while until - confound it all - another split. The stairs go to a Save Point, so follow the door. Eventually, there's another split. The stairs take you to two chests, one containing an Ether and one containing a Cottage (a superior version of the Tent).
Now, trace back and get into the only other lead you have, which'll take you to King Tycoon and some monster. A winged snake-monster. Those things don't go together at all in real life! Didn't really think this one through, really. So King Tycoon gives you an order and you readily comply; however, being a guardian of the Earth Crystal isn't Archeoavis an ultimately positive force to you? Oh well, logic was never your strong suit. How's killing monsters with bells going for you lately?
Archeoavis  Boss Monster |
Type |
Level |
HP |
MP |
Gil |
EXP |
Speed |
None | 21 | 1600 | 2000 | 0 | 0 | 30 | |
Strength |
Attack Mult. |
Magic Atk. |
Evasion |
Defense |
Mag. Def. |
Mag. Evade |
|
39 | 7 | 1 | 10 | 30 | 6 | 1 | |
Stolen Items |
Dropped Items |
||||||
None | Common: Giant Drink | ||||||
Command Immunities | Elemental Immunities | ||||||
Catch, Control, Scan |  | ||||||
Elemental Absorb | Elemental Weakness | ||||||
None |  | ||||||
Blue Magic | Status Immunities | ||||||
None |             | ||||||
Notes | |||||||
Fought four times at 1600HP, then revived with 2500HP. | |||||||
Strategy | |||||||
Hasted Berserkers with 2-Handed can physically pierce Archeoavis' strong defenses. Released monsters can also be potent, and magic can be effective as well if you keep track of Archeoavis' shifting elemental absorptions. Once you get to the final form, stop using magic. | |||||||
Archeoavis is a monster which switches elemental properties. The only way Final Fantasy V is capable of performing this feat is by switching monsters altogether. You won't see it happen, but let me assure you you've killed five monsters by the time you've given Archeoavis his face full of damage. Every subsequent incarnation has lower Defense but higher Magic Defense than the previous form. Archeoavis changes forms in this order:
HP Cap | Absorbs | Weakness | Inflicts | Attacks | |
1 | 1600 | None | Wind | !Sap | Breath Wing |
1 | 1600 | Ice | None | !Wing Attack: Poison | Frost |
1 | 1600 | Fire | None | !Tail: Darkness | Blaze |
1 | 1600 | Lightning | None | !Claw: Paralyze | Lightning |
1 | 2500 | None | None | !Tusk: Confuse | Breath Wing, Frost, Blaze, Lightning, Maelstrom, Entangle |
To simplify a little, you'll have to deal at least 8900 HP damage before you've destroyed the serpent altogether. And you'll find that Archeoavis is a difficult guy to hurt...
First off, Archeoavis has quite a lot of Defense and Magic Defense. You can keep track of its HP and know at all moments which elements aren't absorbed. By always boosting the spell cast, Summoners and Black Mages can deal around 800 HP damage with third-level elemental spells and elemental summons. Since the first form is weak to Wind-elemental attacks,
Aero2 can be used for some decent damage, as can the !Earth ability. After it loses its elemental edge, it becomes worthless.The big damage dealers are Released monsters (RonkaKnigts attack for over 1500 damage, MiniDragons cast
Holy for about 2000 damage), but these can only be used once and I'm not assuming you've got four powerful monsters stored just for the occasion. BlowFish is a great way of dealing damage as well. You'll be hard-pressed to reach this number with most other skillsets, it's unblockable and is never absorbed. The most useful tip I can give you, though, is the Berserker. Barrier-piercing properties, anyone? Normally, he'll deal anywhere between 300 and 800 damage with the Death Sickle and between 200 and 600 damage with the Cleaver. You can double that with the obvious 2-Handed support ability; were you considering anything else on a Berserker anyway? Support a Berserker with a Death Sickle held with both hands with a Haste spell and it'll be able to take down Archeoavis by itself. A thing of beauty, say true.If you're able to let your party revolve around the aforementioned Berserkers, install one or two
Cure2 (preferably also Esna) casters and you're set. Heal up Darkness should it hit your Berserker(s). Slow isn't all that useful as it's dispelled every time you 'kill' an Archeoavis, so just keep focused on healing your main offense. Clothes characters are best off throwing Water Skills; Archeoavis will never absorb Water-elemental attacks and their physical attacks are useless anyway. Should your Clothes characters be able to use !Blue, BlowFish is by far the best attack option. The same goes for Mages; next to healing, BlowFish is the strongest attack you can use. If the spell isn't learned, or black elemental spells when you know they won't be absorbed help out. Any Heavy Armor charcter that misses both 2-Handed and a Death Sickle or Cleaver should bow his head in shame and revert to the Knight for damage output. It'll suck.When the first four Archeoavis' have been destroyed, the creature will appear to die off but revive in an instant. This is the final version; Defense is actually mediocre as opposed to high in this form, but Magic Defense is soaring so lay off any spells. He can use all four of the elemental multi-target spells the previous forms could use, but adds Maelstrom to the list. Maelstrom is an attack that reduces the target's HP to a single digit, much like Tail Screw. The problem is that it's multi-target. Be sure to heal up ASAP from Maelstrom. Entangle is annoying but not all that dangerous. The final form is vulnerable to
L5 Doom, so if your Blue Mages are sick of BlowFish, this spell will get the job done nicely.For your troubles, you obtain no item worthy of mentioning.
Know that once you've followed King Tycoon into yonder room, you won't be able to come back to a lot of places for a long time with all four characters, some of them permanently. If you have any business left in this world, I suggest you attend to it now; take a quick peek at chapter 1.38 for more information.
The cutscene is long and disastrous. To recap: Like we could have expected, King Tycoon has been under X-Death's control ever since we saw him in the ruined town of ERROR. Before X-Death manages to kill you using Alexander Tycoon's body, a young girl enters the scene. Krile, granddaughter to Galuf, enters the flying ruins of Ronka using a meteorite. And even though her infantile spellcasting has released X-Death's hold over Alex, the Earth Crystal still shatters. Bollocks.
X-Death comes, zaps you a couple of times to demonstrate his power. He then leaves for his mission; return to Galuf's world which he left 30 years ago and take control over it. The Crystal shards remain under the evil influence of the dark mage. Alex sacrifices himself to save the shards and eventually bestow upon you the all-but final Jobs of the game. Then, the Ronka ruins crumble, having lost its power source. Escape is of the essence.
The new Crystal shards contain Lancer, Samurai, Chemist and Dancer. The Lancer uses Lances, weapons that cannot be wielded with two hands (an oddity, if you ask me), but can do double damage with the !Jump ability, inherent to the Lancer. It has the oddity of being the only meatshield Class that removes itself from the battlefield to attack, making it a rather poor damage sponge.
The Samurai right now equips Katanas, which is awesome. Katanas inflict critical hits like Barefist punches sometimes do; the downside of Katanas over Swords is that !Spellblade cannot affect them. The Samurai's !$Toss ability costs money, but deals sickening amounts of non-elemental and purely level-based damage.
The Chemist is an odd utility Job that cannot equip Rods and has trouble dealing damage; after 60 ABP it'll learn the !Mix ability, which grants you access to all kinds of powerful attacks, buffs, debuffs and other game-breaking techniques that break this game.
Since the Chemist can double its maximum and current HP with the Goliath Tonic, !Blue is a good action ability since
????, WhitWind and Exploder use HP to calculate effect.The Dancer has poor stats, and !Dance is random. However, the Dancer can equip the
Ribbon to compensate for its poor stats. The Lamia's Tiara increases the chances of !Dance its most powerful outcome, Sword Dance, from 25% to 50%, but it's either the Tiara or the Ribbon so choose wisely.
Caves of Narshe: Final Fantasy V
Version 6
©1997–2026 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
©1997–2026 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.