Final Fantasy V Walkthrough

Written by Djibriel

Contributor

2.18: Preparation for Retaliation

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It's a harsh transition between Galuf's demise and the order of everyday, but as so often the world does not stop to mourn a single action. X-Death must pay, but there's more to do. Mainly, since the end of the next dungeon will mean a big change in your options, this section is an overview of what you can still do here. There's a side-quest to be done which cannot be done later but is so special it's not like normal side-quests. Basically, all you get from it is a lot of Gil, and the only thing you have to do is punch a turtle.

I shouldn't forget to mention that this turtle is an undead demonic Testudine with the strength of a thousand evil armies and almost impenetrable defenses. It's also poisonous. Most parties won't be able to defeat it, and even if you followed everything I've told you so far Gilgame is an extremely powerful opponent which requires you to utilize special tactics to take him down.

Should you want to travel between Val Castle and X-Death's Castle, you could take the Wind Drake and make a detour over Valley of Dragons and Kelb. However, a more direct route takes you through Gil Cave, of which the entrances lie east of Val Castle and south-west of the Big Bridge. Here, only Groundpede's appear; giant centepedes which attack with physical attacks and Earthquake, a multi-target Earth- elemental attack which you can avoid with

Float.

L4 Qrtr can be used to quickly put a dent in all Groundpede's HP, then finish with whatever.

In the middle of the path under the mountains is a pathway downwards which eventually curls upwards to a door. There's a bit where you can't see your lead character, but as soon as you can see him or her again, every tile will award you Gil! However, only the sun is free these days and for every step you take there's a chance Gilgame will attack you. He'll only attack you when you pick up Gil, so on the way back he won't make a showing.

Gilgame	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP	Speed
	Undead	57	32768	8000	5000	0	66
	Strength	Attack Mult.	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	115	13	90	40	40	55	90
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Tonic Rare: Potion			None
	Command Immunities			Elemental Immunities
	Catch, Control
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Blue Magic			Status Immunities
	None
	Strategy
	Gilgame is fast and uses physical attacks, and counters every attack twice, sometimes adding Darkness and Poison. If you beat him, he'll kill everyone not floating in retaliation. Up your evasion, put up Golem, haste yourself up, and use as many Ice-based attacks as you have available.

Gilgame's AI script is simple and effective. He's fast like a greased lightning and attacks physically every turn. When damaged by whatever, he'll counter with !Turtle, which deals the same amount of brutal physical damage and sets Darkness and Poison. He counters twice. When defeated, he'll use an Earthquake attack which deals around 3500 damage to the entire party. If you're not Floating, you die. Cast

Float beforehand, I suppose.

The strategy here depends a little on luck. His weakness is Ice, and that's what we'll have to exploit in order to defeat the thing. Boosted

Ice3 spells and

Ice3 spellblade effects are your best options on the offense; Requiem and

L3 Flare also deal damage though quite a lot less. The key to your protection is the fact that whatever Gilgame is throwing at you, however intimidatingly powerful, are simply blockable physical attacks. Also, Gilgame's fast and will decimate you if you're loitering, but his true strength is his dual !Turtle omni-counter. This means that you can relatively safely boost your own strength in the meantime.

Equip Knife

Hunting Knifes and Accessory

Elf Cloaks; you've got two of the former and three of the latter if you picked up everything so far. Evasion is far superior to defense in this battle. The White

Blink spell and the Ninja's !Twin ability both grant the affected character the prospect of dodging the next two physical attacks, and Golem's Earthen Wall stops his attacks as well. With Golem, a few images and your own enhanced evasive abilities, Gilgame will get in precious few hits.

Set up the above and cast

Haste2. Now, have every character capable of dealing significant damage do so. If a character is not capable of making a large impact (say, you've made a Time Mage with !Summon to support the party) just use Defense rather than deal a little damage, as Gilgame's counterattacks aren't worth it. Keep healing, reviving and damaging and you should be able to outpower Gilgame with luck on your side.

Note that once you leave the area behind the door, the tiles reset. Again, the first tile contains 10 Gil, the last tile contains 40960 Gil and Gilgame may appear whenever it feels like it. Infinite amounts of money, sure, but one trip gets you 81910 Gil which already is all the Gil you'll be spending in the future so there's really no good reason to do it all again.

Kelga: "Zeza...and Galuf... It seems I am all that remains of the Dawn Warriors... How ironic - the oldest and weakest of we four is the only one who still lives..."

In Val Castle, everybody dislikes X-Death. This is because he killed their king. Like I said, at the end of the next dungeon comes a big change for you. Make sure you got the following; if you miss some stuff and care to see if you can still get it, please do.

White:

Black:

Time:

Float
Telepo
Comet
Slow2
Return
Demi2
Haste2
Old

Summon:

Golem
Shoat

Blue:

Songs:

Requiem
SpeedSong

Pianos:

Lugor
Moore

Bestiary (52%):

Normal enemies: #70 - #122 (exception #87), #176 and #177
Aquatic enemies: N/A
Boss enemies: #266 - #282

Special treasures: There's really not that much you could have left behind. Gotten the treasures from the Moogle Village? Collected enough Dragon Fangs for the upcoming dungeon? Did you ever get the Accessory

Kornago Gourd? Obtained the SpeedSong and all? Stolen enough Spear

Doublelances?

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