Final Fantasy V Walkthrough

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3.13: Taking the Black Chocobo; the Battle with Bahamut

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Enemies: Rock Slug, Gaelicat, Cockatrice, Headstone, Ankheg, Ammonite, Landcrawler, Bahamut

Blue Magic: Flash, Aqua Breath

I've been to the desert on a bird with no name...

Check your map and see where you parked your Black Chocobo. Take it to the great desert to the northeast. Ignore the tower to the southwest and head up until you find North Mountain.

In the desert, you may find a few new enemies! Ankhegs are reminiscent of the Undergrounder found in the Gil Cave (centipedes that use Quake attacks). They do not absorb Earth-elemental attacks, unlike their lesser brethren, and they are weak to Ice. Ammonites are mere cannon fodder. Of special note is how neither the Ankhegs nor the Ammonites register as Desert dwellers;

Aqua Breath will not wreak havoc.

Level 3 Flare hits these critters nicely, though.

Landcrawlers only appear in the southern portion of the desert. They have 22000 HP and may use Maelstrom, a multi-target attack that reduces the target's HP down to a single digit. They have a Special Technique called !Crush, which sets Confuse; watch out for that. They are vulnerable to Death and not Heavy, so Odin, the

Death spell and other things of that nature help out. Landcrawlers are immune to Petrify, unlike the Sandcrawlers you might've seen earlier. They have a common Sword

Ancient Sword and a rare Sword

Defender for the Stealing, if you're still interested at this point.

Ascending the Mountain should be easy. The enemies haven't upgraded since the last time you came here, so something like !Kick should kill everything. The purple flowers are still poisonous, but now you can use

Float or Light Step to trample all over them. Bahamut will use an Earth-based attack, so if you lack the

Float spell for some reason, you can Control or

Confuse a Gaelicat to have it cast

Float for you. Use the Save Point. At the summit, where you once found Hiryu, the Wind Drake, you will now face a prize you were promised back when you had but a single tablet: Bahamut, god-king of dragons.

Bahamut Bestiary #298	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP	Speed
	None	99	40000	10000	0	0	40
	Strength	Attack Mult.	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	69	16	20	5	10	20	20
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Dragon Fang			Common: Dragon Fang
	Command Immunities			Elemental Immunities
	Catch, Control
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	None			None
	Blue Magic			Status Immunities
	Aqua Breath
	Strategy
	Having reflect up and Ice Shields will protect against a number of Bahamut's attacks. Add Golem to help with physicals too. Use Romeo's Ballad on a hasted character to reduce the beating you take.

Bahamut has a large array of elemental multi-target assaults, some of which are more painful than others. Blaze and Lightning basically do the same thing (max HP/4 damage), and the other attacks are just magical attacks you should protect yourselves from with

Mighty Guard (or, lacking that,

Shell). The attacks you'll want to keep an eye out for are Maelstrom and Mega Flare. He will use his powerful attacks depending on his current amount of HP:

< 35000: Atomic Rays, Frost
< 30000: Blaze, Earth Shaker
< 25000: Aqua Breath, Lightning
< 20000: Maelstrom, Ice Storm
< 15000: Poison Breath, Zombie Breath
< 10000: Mega Flare

Maelstrom is just a pain in the neck. Shell status and Shield

Aegis Shields will make it miss often, but it's a dangerous move when it connects as it'll drop your character's HP to a single digit. Mega Flare will deal over 2000 damage to all targets. You must either make sure he never has the chance to use it or make it bounce off with the Reflect status. Bahamut will start using Mega Flare when he has 10000 HP or less, making it easily avoidable. When reflected from four targets, he'll deal 9999 damage to himself, ending the battle right there.

Defensively, calling on Carbuncle or Accessory

Reflect Rings is not a bad idea; Mega Flare and Atomic Ray are eliminated by it, and you can cast

Firaga and the like on yourselves for increased damage output. Shield

Ice Shields help against Ice Storm, Frost, Atomic Ray and Blaze: they're grand in this battle. Bahamut, when undamaged, will only use physical attacks, Atomic Ray and Frost. When suitably protected from these attacks by a combination of Golem and Shield

Ice Shields/ Shield

Flame Shields/Dragon Shield (the Mix potion), you can start buffing if you like, since you're essentially immortal.

Shell is good (though

Mighty Guard is quicker), Dragon Kiss helps against Maelstrom.

Bahamut is not technically a Dragon, sadly, so Dragon Cannon (via !Combine), Harp

Apollo's Harp and Whip

Dragon Whisker are out. Useful tactics include

Hastega,

Mighty Guard, Golem and Carbuncle (that order, where applicable). Once you've finished setting up, have a Hasted character continuously use Romeo's Ballad to keep Bahamut's heart at ease while you slaughter him. Big damage dealers include the Two-Handed skill or

Berserk

Brave Blade/ Axe

Titan's Axe/ Sword

Rune Blade weapons, !Gaia's Cave-in (which won't appear all the time), Sword Dance with a powerful weapon (wear a Helmet

Lamia's Tiara), you name it. If you deem it unfair that Bahamut is not considered a Dragon, you can make it so with the (Dragon Fang + Maiden's Kiss) and exploit his faux Dragon nature.

Bahamut is the strongest summon spell in the game! It's barrier-piercing and non-elemental, and thus not capable of being boosted. It's about as powerful as boosted Syldra, but not as powerful as boosted Leviathan. Boosted Leviathan is a hassle though, what with the in-battle preparation and all.

As you can see, we now have all spells except for two. We're missing a single Blue spell (if you kept up) and a single Summon spell. Let's get them!

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