Final Fantasy V Walkthrough
Written by Djibriel
Contributor
3.3: Preparation for the Pyramid in the Quicksand Desert
Enemies: Sleepy, Cowpoke, Hedgehog, Python, Shadow, Neoring, Desertorpedo, Baretta, Slug, GloomWidow, Bewitchin
Treasures: Cottage
Blue Magic: 
BlowFish, Aero3, BlakShok, Guard Off, Red Feast
The Sleepy monsters cast
Sleep a lot, but have little HP. They have a common 
Healing Staff for you to steal... not so powerful now, but interesting anyway. You can now 2-Swords them if you set EqRods on a Ninja. So awesome. Cowpokes attack physically and cast 
Bersrk on themselves. They are the only powerful !Catch here, if you must know. Hedgehogs can be controlled into using BlowFish; they'll never use it normally, but they will respond to any !Attack with a Needle spell (the 50/50 Darkness/Silence one). Pythons randomly use Red Feast and Entangle, so beware. Shadows attack physically, but can be Controlled for Guard Off and BlakShok. How nice.Neoring is the most dangerous one here; it may randomly use
Aero3, which deals around 900 damage to a single target. It has a whopping 4170 HP as well, which is quite a lot for a random encounter. Fortunately it's not Heavy. In addition, it starts the battle snoozing; Sleep is set! Stick to magical attacks (and !Sslap) and you shouldn't have to wake it up before you kill it. You can Control them in order to force Aero3 out of them for you to learn, but note that they won't respond to your commands until you've lifted Sleep from them.Random note: Neoring is one of two creatures with removable Float! Use the
Judge Staff to get rid of it (or cast Dispel, when later in the game). While the Neoring will retain his immunity to Earth-elemental attacks, it now can be hit by Squirrel and Wild Boars from the !Critt command. Oh, the insight I present thee... Anyway, use Missile, 
Demi2, Stop and other things of that nature to kill Neoring before he kills a character with Aero3.Slugs, GloomWidows and Bewitchins won't start appearing until the forests around Moore; the Bewitchins are interesting because they can teach you
Aero, BlowFish and LitlSong when !Cntrlled; in addition, they may randomly use MoonFlut on the party. The rare steal 
Death Sickle is a sweet thing; if you got bored waiting for the Crescent to drop one, here's your chance. The Slugs may randomly use Slimer; the GloomWidow's !Needle attack sets Paralyze. The Slugs are weak to Fire, the GloomWidows are weak to Water. Ninjas with boosted Magic Power will have a field day in these forests. L3 Flare hits all three monsters, and is supremely powerful.North of the Library of the Ancients lies Castle Surgate! While mainly just filled with confused NPCs, there is a single treasure here you can now collect that you couldn't earlier. Find the library lady and help her out once more (the books and locations are the same as last time). Follow her, and go down the stairs. Before you took on X-Death, a purple-robed man was here, talking about Shoat. Now that he's gone, check the crate positioned against the wall in the back; it's a Cottage! If you released Lone Wolf, the crate will be empty! This Cottage is not taken into account when your treasure % is given.
Trivia: when looking at the left side of the A-C shelf now, Lenna will still make an appearance.
Even further to the north lies Karnak; again, nothing here but NPCs talking about how the world has changed and how Dwarves now exist. Queen Karnak is still bed-ridden at the Inn; if you missed the piano here earlier, now's your chance... likewise for the
Fire Rod in the barrel on the city wall.West of the Library lies what once was the Moore Forest. Burned down by X-Death and being pushed away by the mountains of a rivaling world, the Guardian Tree is about the only thing still standing. The Desert has stopped being annoying on the navigational side; a positive side-effect of the world's decay. Before you enter the Pyramid, travel across the desert to find the town of Moore.
In the desert, Barettas and Desertorpedos appear; Barettas are quite physically evasive. They have a powerful special technique called !Body Blow which is unblockable, ignores Defense and sets Paralyze, so kill them quicky. Desertorpedos have extremely strong Quicksand attacks, but you'll only see it when you
Muddle or Control them, or Catch one for later Release. They occasionally drop Dark Matter, which is grand; kill them easily with L5 Doom. AquaRake deals 800% damage to them, since they're Desert creatures.
Here, the townspeople are shocked by the disappearance of the great forest, but they're good-natured enough about it. There is still a piano here if you forgot it earlier. Also, a haunted shed has been unlocked. Go around the Pub and enter the shed on the blind side. Here, there's a hidden passage through the trees even your Thief cannot see."Think you're brave? Take what's in the crate on the left. If you're a coward, take what's in the one on the right."
The left chest contains the
Brave Blade, the strongest weapon in the entire game. It's non-elemental and gives +5 Strength. However, every time you run from a battle or use !Flee, !Dustb or the Telepo spell to escape, the Battle Power of this weapon decreases by 1. Every time you have run in the past has already affected this weapon, and actions taken after you've obtained the blade will continue to affect it. Note that through !Throw or with GobPunch, Battle Power will always be 150 no matter how often you ran.The right chest contains the
Chicken Knife. Its power increases by 1 every two times you run or use !Flee, !Dustb or Telepo, to a maximum of 127. Since the Chicken Knife's damage formula also takes Agility into account, the Chicken Knife turns out to be even more powerful in a normal game than the Brave Blade. Also, fleeing is never a problem anymore. The Chicken Knife adds +5 to Agility and has a 25% chance of using !Flee rather than !Attack, escaping the battle. With !Store, !Sshot, !Dance or !Mug, this will never happen; with !Aim, it still can. Note that through !Throw or with GobPunch, Battle Power will always be 1 no matter how often you ran.I suggest you go for the
Brave Blade if you want to feel like a righteous bad-ass and go for the Chicken Knife if you want a truly convenient weapon to have. If you go with the Chicken Knife, make sure to power it up; head into the desert and use !Flee until you've maxed out the weapon.A 2-Handed Knight with a
Brave Blade is simply monstrous at this point, as is about any physical Job with the Chicken Knife (albeit, to a lesser extent).Time to visit the Pyramid. Maybe we can buy mini-pyramids to decorate our cottages, but let's make sure they're not mini-cursed.
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.