Final Fantasy V Four Job Fiesta, Run 2-06

Now with control of a Fire Ship, you're supposed to go to Crescent where a story event removes the boat from you.  I have another idea, as usual.  Around the forests of Istory there's another summon I can obtain, Ramuh.  Since I have summoner I want all 14 summons available in the endgame-and all available as soon as possible.  Specifically, there's a few bosses up ahead weak to Thunder element.  Along the way I found out that the Th.Anemones always dropped Thunder Scrolls, which give my Ninjas some Thunder Element attacks as well.

That's a normal attack from the Sea Avis-which have 90% evade AND 80% Magic Evade!  Thankfully they only have 25 HP, so one successful hit kills them and summons don't miss.  The Istory item shop had a secret passageway that leads nowhere, and the armor shop has Flame, Coral and Angel Rings for sale-for 50,000 a piece!  I've been pretty frugal with my spending, but I only have 20,000 right now.

But those rings aren't the reason I came up this way, Ramuh is.  He uses Lightning attacks and has a move, Flash, that blinds everyone.  His physical defense is rather high, so Galuf the Summoner was again crucial to winning the battle.  Summoning Ifrit for a bit under 500 damage took Ramuh out pretty quickly.  Of course, since his only steal is a common Hi-Potion, I performed the glitch to obtain 99.  This is my main method of healing in-battle, so I need a lot.  This is no different than stealing and fleeing 98 times, so I have no qualms about it.

I realized I could throw a Mythril Sword for 420 damage, and used 1 Ether on Reina after her MP was drained, and I had to use 1 Phoenix Down after Bolt2 killed someone.  I'm down to 1 of these, I need money fast!  After winning I went back to the Istory Inn to refresh my HP and cure Blind status.  With all the Level 2 Summons in tow, I sailed northwest to Crescent.

Those Crescent enemies are very common around Crescent Village, and have Silver Bows as a common steal.  I could steal these repeatedly, or I can do the glitch like 6 or 7 times.  Guess which option I chose.  I purchased 30 Phoenix Downs, 6 Tents and a Bard Robe for Galuf.  After these small purchases, I still had 720,000 gil.  You might think I went overboard, but I had plans for this money.  After getting the Black Chocobo, I went to Istory again.  A full set of Flame, Coral and Angel Rings set me back 600k, Karnak didn't have Cid, but it did have Rods.  I brought myself up to 10 of each type if I need to break them at any point.  I found Cid in the Library of the Ancients, and he told me that King Tycoon was seen floating towards the Desert of Sand Tides.  I should go there, but I'm not done sidequesting just yet.

Lix, Bartz's hometown, is a Ninja's paradise.  Since Thieves share a lot of the equipment, this area is incredible for my party.  I bought 20 of each type of Scroll, adding Water to my elemental coverage.  1 Kunai to replace the last of my Mythril Daggers and 3 Green Beret and 3 Stealth Robes to upgrade my Thief and Ninja armor.  This brought me down to about 30,000 gil-still 10k more than I started with before this venture, but I want more pocket change.  One more iteration of Silver Bows brought me up to 100k.  Hey, if Gilgabot gives me Thief and Ninja, I'm going to be abusing that.  Finally, with 100k gil, 99 Elixirs, 97 Hi-Potions, 30 Phoenix Downs, 20 Shuriken and more Rods and Scrolls than I'll probably ever need (though I might buy my scrolls before World 2), I'm finally prepared...for Sandworm.

The picture on the left was edited to show Mid's response.  Ummm, with mostly physical attacks and Sandworm always in the back row, and my magic damage being AoE and thus targeting the holes which counter with Demi...how hard could it be?  Well, since Sandworm is basically whack-a-mole and he only uses Quicksand for 60 damage on everyone it's not hard at all.  I missed 3 times but on 2 of them Sandworm ducked, and popped up right where I'd already attacked!

The winning blow was a Sylph summon-had that not been the killing blow, I would have used a Hi-Potion on everyone.  The desert is short if you know the path, and each of the 3 encounters went down to a single Water Scroll hitting for 1800 damage on every enemy!  And this costs only 200 gil!  After a short game of hide and seek with King Tycoon...

...we get dumped into what I think is part of the Ronka Ruins.  Galuf shows exactly why he is the best old guy in Final Fantasy, and I obtain 2 further Shuriken by following the directions scattered throughout.

Bartz gets pretty mad at this note, and again it's something silly.  This game really is hilarious if you know where to look.  Anyway, I went back out, dropping Cid and Mid from the Chocobo Forest into the ruins, and found an airship.  But it doesn't fly very well yet because CrayClaw is sitting on the side.  Is this guy ever threatening?

Not really.  He has some pretty high defense, but throwing a Thunder Scroll from Reina (who has Summon2 equipped boosting her magic power, remember) pasted 90% of his health!  Even though he opened with Tailscrew, I was in no danger so I didn't heal.  I sold the Ice Bow that is a guaranteed drop, and flew back to the Ronka Ruins.  Suddenly they start flying, so I have to go all the way back to Crescent to speak with Cid and Mid so I can find out that there's Adamantium in the Tycoon Meteor because Galuf remembers something.  Ah, SNES plot triggers, so arbitrary.  I am starting to get these down though.

 Of course, what arbitrary plot sequence is complete without ending in a boss fight.  That Shuriken was the most damage I could deal through the AdamanTimi's high defense and permanent Protect and Shell.  I realized it a bit late into the fight, and mainly used Galuf summoning Shiva for 400 damage per hit.

I headed back to Cid and he upgraded my airship, allowing me to fly up higher in the air and thus attempt to enter the ruins at level 15.  This party has been steamrolling everything, only dying when I was unprepared or to some really bad luck.  The question is, will their dominance continue through Sol Cannon and ArcheoAvis?  Or maybe Puroboros, Titan and ChimeraBrain?  Well, next time we'll find out which way.