FF5 No Random Encounters in the Four Job Fiesta (part 2)

Gilgamesh 1 actually took a little bit of thought on how to approach. He could just flatten Galuf if I didn't make proper prep. I settled on having Chemist Galuf !Drink some potions to give myself an edge. He had !Time level 1, so I could get the insane 4x speed advantage too.

There was a question of what to do on the Big Bridge. If you're unfamiliar with the mechanics, various squares on the structure have a chance to trigger fights, and these can pay out experience. I decided the best way to balance things while sticking to the spirit of this would be to trigger one battle on each square that can. However, there was another issue: the squares at the start always triggered on entry. The best compromise, I felt, was to allow this but I have to do my best to get as many others as I can before turning back.

Turns out, this was "as many as I want as long as Bartz is serenading them with love". Cleared out all the spots, saved, and got ready for Bridge Gilgamesh. Everyone had hit level 14.

I didn't end up having to chance Void, because the Mage Masher muting lined up. With Slow/Haste, it was pretty easy to carve him up, and his attacks were fairly survivable. Jump was a one hit KO, however. I needed to use two Phoenix Downs. I had Faris break one rod at this point to speed things up. Almost broke a second because Lenna wasn't dealing damaging dances.

The rest of the fights on the bridge plus another extra at the start just to lock in the Gilgamesh fight brought everyone to level 15. Should be enough, hopefully.


I could start farming money in Regole. Every time you go up and dance at the pub, you earn 100 gil. You can do it over and over and over with no limit. Hm, this was actually something I learned today. If I'd known sooner, I would've spent all the money I could on rods in World 1. Oh well. It'll be fine!I I sort of see this as something like staring at Garulas in a low level game to gain AP. Just instead, I'm dancing. It's like a weirdo freaky strategy that's only useful in very specific niche cases and this happens to qualify as one. It'd be a shame not to use it.

(Okay sure there's some merit in maintaining the money management factor of this challenge too, but this is still on the table. I don't like adding on BUT ALSO YOU CAN'Ts in challenge runs, although I also don't want to do this too much. Not because it's a loophole but because it's slow. There's a faster way to earn all the money I want here!)


For now, I did only a little and moved on with Comet as my only major purchase. Speaking of, the Underground River seems to have fixed encounters in the water section. I'm unsure if this happens in Pixel Remaster (which also has a turn off encounters switch), but this was another potential grinding spot. Like with the books, this is here if I need it, but I'm a little more reluctant to make use of this than the dancing stage. I fought everything once anyway. Faris ended up level 17 whereas the others landed on level 16.

No need to spend a Phoenix Down on Tyrannosaur. Since it's not heavy, Demi weakened it. Its counterattacks (which can include ????) only happen on physicals, so Faris was free to cast then finish him with some Comets. From here I could claim goodies like the Dancing Dagger and the third Elf Cape.

Faris was actually out of MP for the Abductor. However, confusion beat it anyway. I got the free (rip sheep) heal in Kelb. Should mention, throughout all of World 1 I was using pots of life instead of inns.


The Dragon Pod is not heavy and it and the flowers are vulnerable to all sorts of statuses. The only catch is the flowers' relatively high magic evasion. Regardless, Love Song was the way to go. The Pod has no magic evasion so every Demi hit. !Dance from Lenna and Galuf helped to wear it down before a Comet finished it. Most importantly, this gave Galuf enough AP to learn !Mix.

I had 98757 gil after that, about a third of which came from selling the Coronet. Dancing is still on the table if I want to.


Of course, there is one other thing I can do for infinite money if I want. This does not count as a random encounter either. To make this stupidly easy, I could apply the infamous Kiss of Blessing to Gil Turtle, preventing it from using its counterattacks. The battle from here was a matter of Haste, Slow, and Requiem. Unfortunately, I couldn't get Protect: Chemist can apply that only through Turtle Shells or !Drink. This meant the only one who could survive an attack that got through (I spread around the Elf Capes and Guardian) was Galuf when defending. This also wasn't as free as it might seem: because Kiss of Blessing also applies haste, I had to get lucky enough to get through the turtle's magic defense to inflict slow in counter.

It was doable without too, it just took more luck and resources. I had to do it the cheap way the first time (or have planned better) because of a quirk with the turtle's special physical: in most cases, it will inflict poison. Sometimes, like with Bone Mail or Ribbon immunities, it inflicts HP leak. But to a Chemist wearing the Angel's Robe, it inflicts paralaysis and confusion. Because status immunities partly carry over between battles, I had to reset it. And the only way to do that is to go into battle. And the only way to go into battle in here is to fight a fixed encounter. So, yeah. Aside, Chemist using Hi Potion + Hi Potion mix is actually the most damaging thing (1800 flat), but having him able to tank an attack that got through was better.

Naturally, this is another kind of tedious and has a limit to how much you can do it: once I clear World 2, I have to find other sources. I did one clear of the cave (which only had two encounters against the turtle somehow), then went back in for another with full Kiss abuse, which I had to bail out of partway and ended up losing money due to all the Phoenix Downs I had to use. So I decided against doing any more. I doubted I'd need that much anyway. The big expense is usually three or four pairs of haste shoes, but Time Mage can apply it themselves, so they're not as necessary here. Meanwhile, most of the endgame equipment would be found.

Still, here's a (low quality) video of the non-kissed victory.

The enemies on the ship before Gilgamesh got the other characters up to level 17. He wasn't too tough. Enkidu isn't heavy, so that meant Demi. Still forced a reset once when Sword Dance never showed and I cut my losses.


Now, in the Barrier Tower, there were still rings to be hunted despite the fact that this was a no random encounters game. The Yellow Dragons who occasionally show up in the monsters in boxes can drop Coral Rings. At the very least, these are 25000 gil. I took the time to get one drop from both trapped chests. Wasn't crazy enough to go for two drops in a battle in either case though. There's a free one anyway.

I fought Atomos the usual way without Sleep. Just had to reset once when the Slowga hit everyone. I switched some jobs around after !Dance was being annoying so Galuf and Faris could both drop Comets.


I was a little disgusted to find out that Project Demi makes it so that you get the Aegis Shield from the chest in the Forest of Moore regardless of whether you pick it up while or after it's burning. I wanted to get the Flame Shield because it sells for more and none of my characters can equip shields in the first place. I know it's a convenience if you mess up and Aegis is better in just about every other case, but cutting it out as an option anyway for those niche cases feels wrong. I'll have to keep it in mind for next time.

Seal Guardians were kind of annoying. They aren't heavy, so I could smack them with the new Quarter spell, but their insanely high level makes them very magically evasive. I actually did buy Slowga for this just to have more chances to slow them down. After one hit, it could hopefully be quickly finished off with Comet and Dancer attacks. Worth noting that I could cripple the Earth Crystal by weakening it and using float to ignore its attacks.

I could've grinded on the traps in Exdeath's castle, but I didn't bother even doing them once. Not much to say about Carbuncle, I hit him with Quarter when I could, followed by Slow. Beat him at that point. Surprisingly, Gilgamesh gives out no AP for being beaten. I had absolutely nothing to gain by fighting him. So he gets to live.

So let's talk Exdeath. Trying to fight him conventionally eventually gets me killed when he starts breaking out tier 3 magic. In fact, plenty of things before that kill me as well: Zombie Breath and L3 Flare (currently 18) in particular. The usual solution of Reflect Rings doesn't work here because I can't get any yet. I could use Kiss of Blessing, but I'd also rather not exploit that bug unless absolutely necessary. I can't drain his MP with Chemist on its own either. Heavy magic evade and limited resources makes sure of that.


So finally, !Hide strats are coming into play. Bartz is a Chemist with Hide; I bought several Hero Drinks for this. I start off with an Ether to reduce his MP to 9999. In attempt to speed things along, I reset until Krile got off the Dark Ether mix, using one of my two Dark Matters. Then she managed a second. With that, the others did some damage in the meantime. Bartz for his part drank a Giant's Tonic and Protect Drink before ducking back. Cue a bunch of ineffectives. Once the villain was out of MP, he returned, chugged Hero Drinks, and momentarily reviving Faris because I forgot to take the Morning Star off her. Hit and heal as needed. Again, no AP is earned from this battle, so I didn't even need to futz with reviving everyone.


Though they were all alive at the end anyway. World 2 down. The rest shouldn't be too difficult. Read on to find what's next!

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FF5 No Random Encounters in the Four Job Fiesta (part 3)

At the start of World 3, Antlion was roadkill. Old doesn't reduce enemy strength on SNES so it wasn't a total walkover, but it was still easy. Helps that Comet is unaffected by level (Sonic Wave lowers it).


I got Magic Song. Then I used Teleport!! This took me outside of Ghido's Cave and opened the world back up early. Of course, I didn't want to do too much without Lenna. It primarily meant getting the last few Bard songs early for what they're worth, and being able to return to Lix to get cheap items again. I danced a bit in Regole after this, mostly to make up the deficit of not being able to get the Flame Shield. And yes, you can enter Mirage even with random encounters off.

Gargoyles were most easily handled with haste/slow and utterly ruining them with the Chicken Knife. They were also very open to Love Song.

I reset until I sneaked by all the on-field enemies in the Pyramid. There was one that was unavoidable, and surprisingly, the Mummies were actually a pain. I had to use some Phoenix Downs before Bartz could sing Requiem twice. Appropriately enough, Bartz mastered Bard after this fight. I switched him to Chemist, although it would really only have worth when I returned.


Melusine is vulnerable to stop. I used Love Song along with the spell Stop itself, and had Krile dancing with the Chicken Knife. I bought a Lamia's Tiara at Mirage to increase the chances of it showing up.

The second trip into the Pyramid went well. This was also another spot with an infinite grind opportunity if I felt like it or needed it: the Aspises. As with prior things, I just fought each group once. Double Requiem was very effective here, as was the Apollo Harp. Against the non-undead enemies, confusion worked. The Mecha Heads were especially vulnerable and sometimes would just destroy themselves with a Strong Fight. Faris got to level 6 Time Mage at this point, so I switched her to Chemist and Bartz to Time Mage. Everyone was level 22 after I got done here.


Next was an early trip into the void. I bought Reset before entering. Calofisteri had a rare steal that I wanted. I got it without too much hassle and some use of Reset.


I would not yet be fighting Omega, but eventually. Apanda, however, wiped me! Wind Slash still hurts!! It took a bit of luck to get through this.


The Alte Roites could use Circle, which is where Reset came in handy. They went down in a single Sword Dance. As for the Jura Avises, I used Hero Song to try to increase the odds of X-Zone working on them, but if not, several Sword Dances still worked.

In addition to the Rainbow Dress, I picked up several other useful accessories in there. Lenna mastered Dancer when going through this mess, so I changed her job to Bard for a bit. After leaving, I fed the first Magic Pot in Phoenix Tower so Bartz could get L6 Time Mage. I'll get back to that. Lenna was a Time Mage, Bartz was a Dancer, Krile was a Chemist, and Faris was a Bard.

The Island Shrine had two more monsters in boxes. Covert was straightforward, but I made sure to fight a Prototype instead of a Mecha Head to get a Dark Matter drop. It wasn't tough, but after a Sword Dance that barely didn't kill, Comet did two digit damage. That's the problem with the spell, heavily affected by magic defense.


This guy turned out to be one of the harder bosses! Most of it was self-inflicted though: I wanted a Dark Matter steal from all the targets. I took advantage of the Half Elixir !Mix (restores all MP, Hi Potion+Ether) and had Time Mage Lenna use the Thief Knife with Quick.

For Fork Tower, Bard and Chemist went to Minotaur, with !Drink and !Dance respectively, and Time Mage and Dancer went right, with Equip Ribbons and !Time. It may seem like an unusual setup, but Omniscient is vulnerable to Stop. Lenna wore the Reflect Ring here; I can get another, but it's after sub access. Strategy was simple: Stop and !Dance. He can't reset (or use Flare) when stopped. Powering up and smashing was the order of the day against Minotaur. I just made sure to switch out the Chicken Knife. Lamia's Tiara boosted Sword Dance odds too, so.


The rest of the optional bosses went smoothly. Odin took some Sword Dance luck but that was about it. The three little pigs got sliced by Odin out of the lamp. Leviathan is a dragon so Apollo's Harp slaughtered him; I wore the three Coral Rings I had but he never used Tidal Wave. Bahamut is not a dragon, but he also can't resist a good Love Song. I thought of many ideas for Gogo, but I settled on just Kiss of Blessing and killing. Can never resist some good mime murder.

I didn't fight the wall traps in Phoenix Tower, although if I did, it'd be one per floor. The randomness of them compared to other fixed encounters put me off, and I felt I had enough AP anyway. Against the pots, I could use the Wonder Wand if the first Elixir wasn't accepted.

I had a nice chunk of change to spend when all was said and done: 474444 gil to be exact. Hermes Sandals are still nice to have for NeoExdeath because of Dispel, so I bought three. And an extra Coral Ring just in case. Topped up on Hi Potions and got a chunk of Phoenix Downs. I sat on Flame Rings.


Just need to finish things off, starting with Omega. You either have a tool to deal with it or you don't. And I had the tools to crush it for once: actually, Love Song is probably the intended solution to avoid the counters given the code. Still is bad design since this is never hinted at in game anywhere. At this point, everyone had mastered Bard. Everyone went in with !Sing. I opened with Speed Song on Lenna and having everyone else sing Love Song until I had built up enough to comfortably and permanently lock the robot down - doing that was certainly not the intended solution, but honestly? Screw Omega. Then I could have Lenna sing Hero Song while Faris used !Dance and the other two kept it locked down. The robot never got a chance to move! The video is boring but it's there.

Azulmagia was beaten down with !Dance. If I wanted to optimize, I'd have added Venom Rod breaks. Catastrophe killed me in a funny way: I was cycling the Wonder Wand for later, taking advantage of its pathological hatred for float status and wearing a Wall Ring. Holy reflected and hit the Wall Ring user. Oops. I got the Elf Cape drop from Halicarn second try, very nice. Also just a beatdown. I wore Coral Ring for Twin Tania. Haste, Slow, kill (with !Dance).


What's that? I have Berserk access, so Shinryu should be easy? Well, yes. But I didn't need that. The setup was Lenna Bard/!Time, Bartz Chemist/!MIx, Krile !Dance/!Time, and Faris Time Mage/!Mix. Coral Rings let me survive the opening Tidal Wave. Every time one of the girls' turns came up, they would use Quick: Lenna and Faris both had Gold Hairpins for this. The !Mix users raised the attackers' levels. Apollo's Harp and Chicken !Dance did the damage. Shinryu got two turns after its opening move: a Fight that killed Krile, and a Thunder that did half of everyone's max HP due to the weakness from Coral Ring. In other words, not enough. Here it is in video form.

For Necro, Death Potions killed the barriers. The usual killed him. I had saved one Jura Avis earlier, however. I used this and the status bug to give everyone Ribbon (everyone but Krile had learned Equip Ribbon) and Angel Ring resistances (went out and got four) before final Exdeath. The stage was set for an ass-kicking.


With everyone immune to White Hole, I took full advantage of the first phase of Exdeath. I had Lenna pump everyone's stats with !Sing. I had eight Dragon Fangs. Everyone got a Dragon's Kiss and the non-Chemists got a Giant Drink mix; Bartz himself just drank one. I drained Exdeath's MP, slowed him, and began the beatdown. He didn't last long.


When NeoExdeath appeared, things got ugly. The girls all had !Time. After a couple queued Sword Dances went off, Faris used Quick followed by Bahamut from the Lamp and...X-Zone, mostly because I forgot Elemental Power earlier. But it landed on the back part ("Exiled to the Rift"), so, lol? Lenna started massacring the Grand Crosser with Apollo's Harp. Krile...tried to Sword Dance, but I had buffed so much that the damage was overflowing! I had to have her attack normally! Faris kept using the Lamp and eventually started breaking rods.


All in all, I killed NED before any parts could move!! Video here.

All in all, this was an interesting challenge. Wouldn't exactly call it hard, however. Hopefully it managed to be entertaining anyway. Thanks for reading.

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