Final Fantasy V Four Job Fiesta, Run 2-04

Since I stopped last time not at full HP, I rested at the Inn in Walse.  Reina made the switch to the Summoner class, and then I sold my Daggers and (now spare) Training whatever.  I purchased 2 Cotton Robes, preparing to switch someone else to Summoner after obtaining Shiva, and also restocked on Potions.

Reina's stats as a Summoner are much lower Strength, much lower Agility, slightly lower Vitality but more importantly her Magic Power is nearly 40 points higher!  Nice to have some magical damage and even AoE this run, since last time my only magic damage was Holy and my only AoE was X-Fight-and that doesn't really count.  Before speaking to King Walse about his broken crystal, I purchased the Chocobo, Sylph and Remora summons.  The chocobo summon does single target physical damage-surprisingly, right now it does more than my Thieves, and from the safety of the back row >_>.  The Sylph summon deals about 200 base damage and drains it evenly into the party.  Group healing equivalent to throwing a Potion on everyone is much appreciated for this team.  Finally, the Remora summon has a base 100% chance to paralyze the target.  This changes based on caster and target level though, and is subject to Magic Evade.  I'm probably not going to be using this.

King Walse told me to go to Karnak to save the Fire Crystal, but screw that, I want redemption on Shiva.  With the ability to safely deal damage from the back row now, along with an upgrade to my Daggers and full party healing, I think I can take her now.

The plan was simple-kill the Commanders one at a time, using one Chocobo Summon before using Sylph for my damage output from the Summoner.  That should outpace Shiva's alternating row Ice2 spells and give me an easy win.  But first I had to climb up her tower.  I just escaped from most of the encounters on the way up, stealing Mythril Swords to sell later.

Wait, Fat Chocobo?  and that's a LOT of damage-Shiva has 1500 HP, and the Commanders only 600!  To put it simply, the Chocobo Summon has an 8% chance to deal approximately 3 times normal damage to every enemy.  I had to make this fight count now, I could not afford to waste that luck-this was the first time I'd summoned Chocobo this run.

Since Shiva's Ice2 spells were dealing around 80 damage to each of 2 characters, and I was healing 50 on everyone every round.  Every 2 rounds Shiva dealt 80 to everyone and I healed 90-100 in the same timeframe...I wasn't going to lose this fight.  On my way out I stole more Mythril Swords, and rested at the Inn for more MP.  With that little diversion out of the way, time to go to Karnak.  But how to get past the mountain range?

Why, by teleport in a meteor of course!  After arriving on the shores of Karnak, I realized I could boost the damage that Shiva dealt by equipping an Ice Rod.  Additionally, if I need elemental damage in a hurry I guess I can break rods now...but I'm going to try to avoid that.  So, let's see how much damage a boosted Shiva deals.

300-350 on targets neutral to the element, not bad.  Since Reina would wipe everything in one hit, I could steal three times per encounter before wiping things.  My party reached level 11 2 steps away from Karnak, but then I got another encounter 1 step later!  Anyway, Karnak has a lot of really shiny things for most parties, but mine isn't really dependent on shops that aren't item shops.  I mimed buying a Fire Rod and was promptly arrested.  Come on Karnak, you've got plenty of fire, can't I have some for Byblos please?

In prison, Cid breaks through the wall and meets the party.  He's let loose when the guards notice the Fire Crystal is about to shatter, but he bargains with the guards to let my party out.  Better than having to fight my way out, I kind of want a few things from the shops.

This amused me.

Before entering the Fire Ship I bought 1 Fire Rod, 1 Thunder Rod, 4 Plumed Hats, 3 Silver Armor, 1 Silk Robe and 2 Silver Rings.  This gave my party a full set of the best defensive equipment at this point in time.  Since I was running low on gil I sold my Rods, Glasses, Leather Caps and remaining Training thingies.  Faris played the piano in the pub (this is where people would say #PianoFlex), rested in the inn and headed off to the Fire Ship to attempt to save the crystal.  The Fire Ship had a few really nice treasures, mostly the Thief Glove and Full Moon-full damage from the back row! (this is one of those boomerang type weapons)  The Thief Glove increases the successful Steal rate from 40% to 80%.

While killing random encounters, I realized I didn't show a picture of the Elf Cape, so have a Faris dodging a hit that would have killed her.  Conveniently enough, the area where you get the Thief Glove has one type of encounter, and one of the enemies has a common steal of a Hi-Potion!  I decided to sit back and steal a bunch.

That will do nicely.  No other class will have more than 1 or 2 by now, so this is a decent advantage in lieu of White Magic as Potions aren't really effective for in-battle healing any more.  At the save point, I tented, saved and prepared for LiquidFlame.  But first there was a puzzle with an Elixir.  7 Elixirs isn't bad, but if I get Ninja at the next crystal I can use a Zuu to obtain 99.

My approach should be obvious enough here.  Bartz has the Full Moon equipped, and Reina and Galuf both have Ice Rods to boost the power of Shiva.  The way this fight works is LiquidFlame switches between 3 forms, human, hand and tornado.  Each one has a different counterattack to damage-Flame, a fire attack that deal 25% of your max HP in damage, Fire2 for about 250 damage and Magnet, which brings a party member to the front row respectively.  LiquidFlame also switches to one of the other forms, chosen at random.  The tornado form casts Fire2 on itself endlessly, healing the boss.  The human form can attack and use Flame randomly.  The hand form just physically attacks, but unlike the other two forms this one is immune to the ice element.  The main threat in this fight is the counterattacks and the hand form, so ideally it shuffles between human and hand so I can chain Shiva summons.

  I won very easily, but annoyingly the boss switched between human and hand every time!  I had to settle for casting Sylph for damage on the hand form though, which amusingly ran out of MP after 5 castings of Fire2.  Despite winning, the Fire Crystal still explodes-and Karnak Castle is soon to follow!  You have 10 minutes to escape the castle before it explodes and you get a game over.  To tempt you there's about 20 treasure chests, with rewards ranging from Elixirs and gil to rare items such as an Elf Cape, Guardian Dagger and a Ribbon!  Most of these are trapped with encounters that must be defeated to retrieve the item.  Since I have Thieves I'm not too worried about the Elixirs, but I really want those rare items!

I grabbed the items and also managed to steal 2 Mage Mashers (upgrade to my Mythril Dagger) and 3 Elixirs from Gigas enemies.  I also collected 1 Elixir from a treasure chest, and went to leave the castle.

But first, there's the Iron Claw battle.  On the left I got a picture of Sylph in action.  Once the Karnaks are defeat the Sergeant transforms into Iron Claw, keeping his HP but increasing his defenses quite a bit.  I noticed that on ATB=Wait the timer wouldn't count down in menus, so I did that to preserve time.  In hindsight I could have collected more Elixirs, but I can just steal more.  I dealt enough damage to Iron Claw with the Full Moon, Sylph and Shiva so that one more Sylph summon killed him.

The moment I got Thief I was hoping to get Ninja so I could do the 99/255/Infinite Item glitch...and I got it!  Galuf became a Ninja with Summon (unfortunately not Summon2, but Sylph is good enough and it boosts Ninja Scroll throwing damage) with 2 Mage Mashers, Bartz also became a Ninja but with Steal.  He equipped the Guardian Dagger and a Mythril Dagger.  Faris got the now-free Full Moon, and Reina's equips didn't change.  I sold my Whip, Giyaman Bell and 2 Mythril Knives-I think I could have thrown them, but I'll have better weapon throws when I need them.  I used the Inn to refill on HP and MP, then decided to try out the glitch, so I sold all my Potions off too.

 The first step is to have an empty hand on a character with Throw, and an item you can equip in the first item slot.

 Make sure you have 0 of the item you're about to steal in your inventory, and get into a fight.  Equip the weapon in the first item slot.

 Now Throw the empty slot.  If what you're stealing can be thrown, you'll throw it after stealing it but I'm trying with Potions, so I need to Throw the empty slot (of which I have M5) again.

Steal the item you want a ton of.  Faris has the Thief Glove to make this more likely.  You can even see Bartz blocking a hit with the Guardian Dagger at 25% odds.

You now have 99 (or if you needed to throw again, infinite that can be sold one at a time or 255 in bulk) of whatever you just stole.  Just finish the battle however you want now. (I summoned Shiva, but escaping would have worked fine)

I effectively can have as much of whatever I want if it can be stolen, so this is going to be a pretty fun run to complete.  Anyway, next time is the Ancient Library!