Final Fantasy V Four Job Fiesta, Run 2-12

After a month of forced inactivity, and a week of laziness, I'm finally back and writing up the rest of my Four Job Fiesta Report.  Where I left off after post 11 (2-?? was a quick thing on how I finished on time-it'd be a decent read, though 2-13 will cover most of the same things with less OP strategies) was right outside of Phoenix Tower at Level 26.  Without any further stalling, into the tower Team Sidequest goes.

Inside the tower, escaping battles is locked: you MUST defeat every enemy you come across, or die trying.  Coupled with fake walls that if you choose the wrong one is a miniboss, this dungeon can be a challenging place to run through given its 30 floor length.  However, the awesome song Four Warriors of the Dawn plays, so the length doesn't get annoying.

I'm being honest here: I expected powerful physicals from that Kuzar miniboss, so I summoned Golem before it could act.  Somehow, it either ignored Golem or dealt so much damage it went through the Earth Wall in one shot.

Several battles later, I encountered a Chamcubia/Bella Donna pair.  The Bella Donna was wiped quickly, but the Chamcubia ended up confused by a Temptango, which it followed up with Frog Song on itself!  I kept trying to steal from it, without the Thief Glove, so imagine my surprise when I pull the Ribbon rare steal on the 5th go-evading the Wall Ring common steal!  You can't make this stuff up, it just happens sometimes.

Every 5th floor has 2 pots, one with 1000*floor# gil, and the other is a Magic Pot battle.  I shuffled around jobs before each Magic Pot to maximize AP gains on relevant jobs, and didn't pay much attention to equipment (this is why Krile has Regen).  Anyway, giving the Magic Pot and Elixir or 2 causes it to escape and give you 100 AP, well worth it given my unlimited supply.  If I can master all 4 jobs, it will make Omega that much easier via more ability combos available.  I also had one fight where Faris and Krile both Danced for a Temptango, confusing both enemies in the battle.  That was amusing, though I longed for a piece of gear with Sword Dance up!

The next accidental miniboss I ran into was a Sol Cannon fight.  It was every bit as easy as the original one, and I pulled out Sylph for healing from Surge Beam.  Even this late in the game those Level 1 summons can still pull their weight.

Phoenix Tower continued being pretty boring, outside of stealing Red Shoes, Wall Ring and Rainbow Suit in 1 try each.  Chamcubia enemies are pretty threatening due to their "Hug" Petrification move.  I wonder what the logic behind that was.  The Red Shoes are one of the best defensive accessories and replace Temptango with Sword Dance.  The Rainbow Suit is nearly as good as the Crystal Armor, has Sword Dance Up and blocks a few status effects, most notably confuse/charm.  I only grabbed one though, in hindsight I should have stolen a few more...but I can always head back to Phoenix Tower for more thieving.

Oh right there's a LiquiFlame and instead of 25,000 gil there's a useless Aviskiller bow before reaching the top.  Nothing threatening, and Team Sidequest picked up a couple levels and ~600 AP while murdering everything with Hydra*2.

At the top of Phoenix Tower, the Hiryuu used in World 1 turns into the Esper Phoenix, which has the interesting effect of reviving one party member with full HP and MP, in addition to dealing fire damage to the entire enemy party for the insane cost of 99 MP.  It's a useful summon in that I can KO one party member with low MP and revive them with full via Phoenix, and repeat the process whenever I want.  Unlimited free healing...if I get 2 turns in battle to spare.

Team Sidequest then turned their attentions to Fork Tower, where one side counters magic with 9999 physicals and the other counters attacks with either Meteor spam or Reset.  This is a really cool area, even if it is short, because it requires you to split your party into magic and physical, and still be able to beat a boss at the top on each side with the same restrictions on physical only and magical only.  I sent Bartz and Faris up the physical side as a Ninja and Thief (with Throw, of course) and Reina and Krile as a Summoner and Dancer (with Summon for magic damage).  If your party lacks magic damage...run.  The boss can still be beaten with some shenanigans involving Mute, Reflect and/or stalling.

Both parties had no difficulty climbing the tower, and I picked up the very valuable Wonder Rod.  This weapon casts Reset when used as an item in battle, and cycles through every white and black magic spell in the game when used with the Fight command.  This is incredibly helpful as it can be prepared for, say, Shell to halve the damage of, say, Almagest.

Minotaur went down pretty easily, as I could heal and attack each turn.

Well, except for when he attacks twice in a row, but Faris blocked her killing blow with the Hardened Dagger.  Minotaur would cast Holy to end the fight if he had MP, thankfully I don't have to tank it at the end of the battle.

Omniscient, however, did nothing but Cure, Regen and all that boring healing stuff while I wailed away with Hydra.  Eventually he went down, but took Krile with him via a dying Flare.  This granted me access to the Light Warrior base again, and from there we could find Cid again.

They turned the airship into a submarine, granting me access to the Great Sea Trench.  But I have a 2nd destination in mind first...

Sunken Walse Tower, of course!  The Gogo fight is absolutely brutal, countering physical attacks with 9999 on the attacker, magic with triplecasted Meteor, and if you deal enough damage he triplecasts Meteor, then Blue Magic spells after!  Of course, if you "just do what he does", which is nothing, he leaves after 3 minutes and you get the Mime job.  Why did I come down this way, because Mime isn't helpful for this party?  Well...I like the idea of this fight.  It's silly.  And since I was doing everything else in the game, there was no harm in doing this one extra fight.  I can think of one time when winning it will be challenging...

Anyway, I finally headed off to the Great Undersea Trench, where the argoyles died to 3 Hydras and the encounters died to Odin or 2 Hydras.  One set of Unknown enemies used the brilliant strategy of Dynamo, reversing everyone's row...and then casting it again, reverting it to normal!  Real smart move there guys.  Anyway, the damage floors brought my HP to 1, but I was never in any danger due to wiping everything before it could move, even the boss!

Normally you have to kill all 3 at once or get countered by Delta Attack, but these guys are vulnerable to Odin, so the battle was an instant win.  Casting Hydra 6 times would have just taken longer, and this was a cooler solution anyway.

From there, I flew to the yellow Chocobo, and found an amusing thing if you enter the cave on mount, an overlap of both vehicles!  Anyway, I trekked all the way to the falls on foot to pick up the Magic Lamp, which cycles through all the summons bar Phoenix starting from Bahamut and going down the list.  Despite having Summoner, I still have a reason for this which will be apparent later.

Anyway, in the Istory Falls dungeon (the gargoyles outside warrant only a passing mention) I stoled 2 Plumed Hats from the same Tonberry, which is a weird glitch.  maybe it has to do with the Tonberry deleting and reappearing as a different enemy with refreshed steals?  Hydra carried me through the dungeon...this sounds a lot like a Summoner SCC, fun.  I equipped Coral Rings on everyone before the boss, and sat down for another quick duel.

Leviathan uses Tidal Wave a lot, which I absorb from the Coral Rings.  Isn't pre-planning great?  Anyway, nothing interesting happened in this fight either, just a double attack of Tidal Wave for 800ish, then Tail for 912 on Krile with 860 HP left...bringing her to full HP.  I don't understand how either.  Anyway, with all the Summons in tow and relevant treasures, it's finally time to dive into the Cleft of Dimensions, for real.  Not that Odin/Pinwheel run in 2-??, but an actual run where the Pinwheels are only there to fall back on if necessary. Almost 3 years later, the pinwheel spamming is all you're going to get. I couldn't be bothered to run back through the final dungeon with this overpowered team again when I already know they could dominate easily. Besides, the time limit made it interesting :)