This page contains general information for speedrun attempts. These may be referred to by route guides.

Equipment

Classes

Blue Mage

The Blue Mage learns spells by experiencing their effects and surviving the battle.

Dark Spark

• AKA: DrkShock
• Enemy: Black Flame
• Location: Crescent

This spell divides the target's level by 2, rounded down. It's base hit rate is 66%, so that is the maximum allowed level difference between caster and target. Use this to help make an enemy vulnerable to Level 5 Death.

The Black Flame has a 33% chance to use this spell on every turn.

Death Claw

• AKA: DeathClaw
• Enemy: Iron Claw
• Location: Karnak Castle Escape

This spell decreases the target's health to 9 or less and inflicts paralysis. It does not work on enemies with the Heavy flag set, which includes most bosses. However, the Dragon Pod boss does not have this flag, so this is an option for a quick kill on the boss. The hit rate is 66.

Iron Claw has a 33% chance to use this spell on odd numbered turns, and a 66% chance on even numbered turns.

Goblin Punch

• AKA: GblinPnch
• Enemy: Goblin
• Location: Tule

This attack deals physical damage as if the caster were unarmed. The caster's base damage is multiplied by 8 and the target's defense is ignored if the caster and target share the same level.

The Goblin has a 33% chance to use this spell on every turn.

Level 2 Old

• AKA: L2 Old
• Enemy: Magic Dragon
• Location: Castle Exdeath (2F-4F)

This inflicts the Aging status effect on enemies with levels divisible by 2 and ignores resistances. Enemies with this status will lose 1 level and speed every tick of the ATB until they reach 1. Curing the effect does not reverse the loss. Use this to help make an enemy vulnerable to Level 5 Death.

The Magic Dragon has a 33% chance to use this spell on its 4th turn. However, it targets itself instead of the party. Confuse will switch the target to the party. The dragon also provides the spell on its Control list for a guaranteed cast.

Level 5 Death

• AKA: Level 5 Doom
• Enemy: Page 64
• Location: Library of the Ancients

This inflicts Dead on enemies with levels divisible by 5 and ignores resistances. However, it does not ignore Undead and will restore these enemies to 100% health.

The Page 64 has a 33% chance to use this on every turn.

Self-Destruct

• AKA: Exploder
• Enemy: Motor Trap
• Location: Fire-Powered Ship

The caster deals CURRENT_HP damage to the target and then dies. This probably sounds useless. However, you can use it to get out of scripted fights that do not game over on party death. It can also cause Azulmagia to copy the spell and suicide. This unlocks an extra save point in the final dungeon.

The Motor Trap uses this spell in response to Thunder spells. This enemy is auto-summoned when the last enemy to die is a Defeater.

Chemist

The Chemist's contribution to the party comes from various Mixes. They learn Mix after gaining 45 AP.

Dragon Armor

• AKA: Dragon Defense
• Effect: Def+, M.Def+, Reflect
• Recipe: Phoenix Down + Dragon Fang

This mix is one way to get reflect for the Catastrophe fight.

Dragon Power

• Effect: Level +20
• Recipe: Potion + Dragon Fang

For every Dragon Fang you have lying around, you can save one turn mixing one of these tinctures.

Kiss of Blessing

• AKA: Blessed Kiss
• Effect: Berserk + Haste + Blink
• Recipe: Maiden's Kiss + Holy Water

Use this to buff your enemies in the SNES and PSX versions. Yes, really. The Berserk from this buff ignores immunity flags. This locks the target into physical attacks. Haste may sound scary, but if you're using the Guard/Cover combo, you're invincible because you're only taking physical hits. Blink only affects accuracy for physical attacks. It doesn't impact spells, and it doesn't stop Zeninage. But wait, there's more! Enemies won't run reaction scripts in this state. This includes the script that changes Inter-dimensional Rift Exdeath into Neo Exdeath, allowing you to skip the final battle.

Sadly, Kiss of Blessing no longer ignores immunity in the GBA version. You'll have to fight Exdeath the old fashioned way.

Levitate

• AKA: Levisalve
• Effect: Float
• Recipe: Antidote + Maiden's Kiss

Use this mix to float before fighting Catastrophe.

Samson Power

• AKA: Samson's Might
• Effect: Level +10
• Recipe: Holy Water + Antidote

Your party won't be able to do much damage with Zeninage, or have much success with Dark Shock, at typical speedrun levels. This mix provides a cheap way to boost your levels for these formulas.

Knight

Guard

This action reduces received physical damage to 0 until the user's next turn. Guard isn't all that helpful in itself, but pairs up nicely with Cover.

Cover

This innate passive ability makes the bearer take physical damage for all party members in Near Death state. A unit automatically suffers Near Death when they fall below 12.5% health, and for player characters, they also switch to the crouching animation. The wielder cannot cover if they have any state that disables player input.

Put all other party members into Near Death and use Guard to become immune to physical attacks. Berserk all enemies and you are effectively invincible.

Samurai

Shirahadori

• AKA: Swrdgrab

An innate passive ability that gives the bearer a 25% chance to evade physical attacks. It rolls this check before doing the normal evasion check. The Knight's Cover/Guard cover is superior. However, it's good to know this exists as you'll have a Samurai in your party in several situations.

Zeninage

• AKA: !$toss, Gil Toss

Spends your money to make a guaranteed attack on the enemy party. The attack costs 50 * LEVEL * NUMBER_OF_TARGETS gil. Damage dealt is ((LEVEL + 10) - ENEMY_DEFENSE) * 150, and caps at 9999. The formulas account for level adjustments, so a Chemist can really boost your attack power.

Thief

Sprint

• AKA: Dash

This innate passive ability lets you run twice as fast out of combat. This stacks with the running speed in the PSX and GBA versions to quadruple your speed, but can also make your movement difficult to control.

Vigilance

• AKA: Caution

An innate passive ability that protects the party from back attacks.

Flee

• AP Needed: 60

This command provides a guaranteed escape from battle. Equip this on a Thief, or a character with Hermes Sandals, and you can escape as soon as a battle begins.

Time Mage

Return

• AKA: Reset
• Location: Regole, Castle of Bal, Quelb, Castle Surgate

Allows you to reset a battle. Serious attempts at this game should probably avoid it, but it can help in a race. This will save your run in the late game battles if you mistime Level 5 Death, or your strategy otherwise goes awry.

Glitches

References

GameFAQs Final Fantasy V: Algorithms/Stats FAQ- Formula Information