Ｆｉｎａｌ　Ｆａｎｔａｓｙ　Ｖ

Karulu, Lenna, and Faris stand on the airship deck. Faris walks over to Lenna.

Butz walks up from below deck and toward the bow, where Galuf is perched in a spot that doesn't look terribly safe.

Galuf walks back onto solid deck.

Butz looks upset.

Galuf shakes his head and reaches toward Butz.

Scene change to outside a meteorite. Karulu perches on the side as Galuf says his farewells to Butz, Lenna, and Faris.

Galuf nods.

Karulu hops down, and Galuf starts to head for the meteorite.

Galuf heads inside.

Karulu follows, as energetically as is apparently usual for her.

Switch to a wide-area view. Two sparkles are seen rising into the sky.

The ruined town is now almost completely destroyed, with nothing left of it except some rubble and the disturbed section of ground that it rose from. The meteorite, on the other hand, sits by and appears to be completely intact.

Land anywhere (except the ocean) to continue.

Butz stands on deck, looking downcast. Lenna and Faris arrive from below deck.

This trip remains entirely optional even now...

The dialog with the chancellor changes slightly after the events in the ruins.

The chancellor and soldiers present show their agreement.

Continue into the Sarisa flashback and everything else as before.

Cid and Mid don't come out to meet the party this time, and further checking reveals that they've left a note in the library room.

The black chocobo stands outside the meteorite.

Cid and Mid are inside. The party looks shocked to see them, even though finding them was the whole point of coming here.

He pushes the adamantite onto the glowing tile. There's a reaction.

Lenna explains things to Cid.

Cid nods. Everyone heads outside, where Cid and Mid hop excitedly.

Cid and Mid hop on the black chocobo and fly away.

While this is conceptually the "next" meteorite, you can visit the remaining three in any order you want.

Cid, Mid, and the black chocobo are already here.

Cid and Mid head inside, then return shortly after.

A monster appears behind them.

Cid and Mid duck out of the way, and the monster attacks the party, though there are actually not one but six Pyroboros (ピュロボロス). They have 1500 HP each and no weaknesses, but do have a few problematic reaction scripts. A bit annoyingly, each will cast Cura on itself if attacked with Summon Magic. Very vexingly, each will cast Araise on the whole group when its HP runs out. Fortunately, all reactions to an attack occur before anything actually dies of it, so no dying one can revive either itself or any that die of the same attack.

All strategies for this battle break down into two types. You have to either prevent Araise from being effective by killing all six at once, or prevent them from casting Araise to begin with. There are any number of ways to kill them all at once, including Black Magic, Summon Magic (the damage should overpower their healing), the new Samurai job's !Coin Toss, Ninja skill scrolls... in short, anything that spreads damage out fairly evenly.

More interesting in my mind are ways to prevent it. A Sword Mage using Silence will always inflict 'silence' and thus block the casting. The Silence spell and Mage Masher may also work, if rather less reliably. The enemies have and may use Self-Destruct either on their own or as commanded when under the influence of !Control, and one that dies by blowing itself up will not react to that, so you can either wait them out or use !Control and have them suicide. Also in the patience game catergory is waiting for them to run out of MP, which doesn't take too long since they only have 100 to begin with ( Cura costs 9 and Araise costs 50, and using Magic Hammer against them can speed this up). And, if you feel like something different, make a party of Monks, beat them nearly to death, and let counterattacks finish them off, since counters don't trigger reaction scripts, either.

Aside from it being in their !Control list, each Pyroboros has a 33% chance to use Self-Destruct every other turn.

The name seems to be a combination of Greek "pyro" ("fire", transliterated into Japanese as ピュロ due to Greek phonetics) and "boros" ("eater", as in "ouroboros"). Come to think of it, there's a boss in FFVI called Flame Eater, and that seems unlikely to be mere coincidence.

Cid and Mid hop up and down some more.

Cid, Mid, and the black chocobo are already here.

Cid and Mid head inside, then return shortly after.

He moves aside, letting the party enter to confront Titan. Titan mostly attacks physically, and may also use Earth Shaker, an Earth attack that hurts the whole party. Additionally, he always uses Earth Shaker upon dying. Thieves can rarely steal an Earth Hammer, but will usually just get a Potion instead. No weaknesses, and no elemental resistances besides absorbing Earth, so attack with anything. Casting Slow at least gives him fewer chances to attack.

The primary challenge here is dealing with that Earth Shaker attack. Wouldn't it be nice if you could avoid it? Well, you can! It misses everyone with 'levitate' status. As you may know, there's a Timespace spell for that, except that you don't have it yet. This complicates matters, but there are still at least two ways to get the status with relative ease. The one I always see in strategy guides is to return to the North Mountain and !Control one of those flying cats into casting it on you. The other way I've found is to raise a Chemist to job level 2 (40 ABP total) and !Mix a Maiden's Kiss with an Antidote (once for each character). Since 'levitate' status remains after battle, as long as you don't rest, get it in advance and laugh as Titan's strongest attack is rendered impotent.

Winning grants a High Potion, 5 ABP, and...

Cid and Mid enter.

The party goes back outside to wait. Cid and Mid exit and jump around some more.

Cid, Mid, and the black chocobo are already here.

Cid and Mid head inside as usual, but this time, they don't return.

Inside, Cid and Mid appear to be trapped.

It's time for another boss fight, of course! The most dangerous attacks the Chimera Brain (キマイレブレイン) has are Aqua Breath (Blue Magic) and Blaze (Ice damage and 'slip' status to the party), and it will use one of those at least every other turn, but at least there aren't any reaction scripts this time. Thieves can steal a Wind Spear rarely or a Dragon Fang usually, worth the effort either way.

In the cheap tactics department, note that this boss is not Heavy. That means Death Claw will reduce it to single-digit HP. Feel free to abuse.

Chimera Brain has a 33% chance to use Aqua Breath each turn, so learn it if you haven't yet.

Winning nets 6 ABP and a Phoenix Tail. Cid and Mid are still spinning around after the battle, so the party steadies them.

Everyone heads back outside.

Assuming that this was the last one...

The world map appears, showing power flowing from the four meteorites and converging on a single point.

The party starts to leave.

The upcoming trip is one-way. Deal with any unfinished business now.

Make sure you've played all five pianos, won all the optional summon beasts you want, and learned all the Minstrel songs and Blue Magic you can. Rix remains a great source of cheap consumable items, and if you like breaking rods, stock up on those now too, since they won't be available in stores again for a long time. You can farm Prototype on the islands southwest of Crescent for a supply of Dark Matter, too (as a reminder, use !Control → Self-Destruct for an easy kill).

Another bit of unfinished business may well be that annoying basement in Worus Castle. If you'd rather kill the monster there than run from it, there are several feasible options by now. If you've learned Level 5 Death, that kills it, period. So does 1000 Needles, since it has fixed damage and always hits, though it costs slightly more to cast. If you don't have either one, worry not, since other methods work too, though perhaps not as easily. The problem here is that its high (50) defense and magic defense negate most of what you can throw at it at this point, especially when combined with its absorption of all elements. Several abilities that hit harder are useless here since they work by raising M, the damage multiplier, but double zero is still zero. What you need is a non-elemental attack with high A to overpower its high D. You'll also ideally want perfect accuracy thanks to the creature's 50% evade and magic evade. Most weapons available so far aren't strong enough to consistently inflict damage, either (the strongest non-elemental weapon so far, the Killer Bow, has 49 attack).

So, given all that, what works to kill it with damage? One way is to !Throw Shuriken if you have the money, as !Throw doubles A and Shuriken have 50 attack to start with, for an A of 100 (plus random variation), and !Throw always hits. Combining a Samurai sword with the Hunter's !Aim may work thanks to the blade's high critical rate (criticals double A and negate D). Goblin Punch will work as long as the caster is exactly level 20 (8x A and negate D for equal levels). Self-Destruct works if you have at least 666 HP and don't mind suicidal attacks. !Control can't kill it, but can keep it from killing you. Certain mixes can kill it (Dark Potion, Drain Kiss, Dark Breath, Shadow Flare) but require uncommon ingredients. The Dancer's Sword Dance doubles A (and M), which should be enough to hurt, especially with a good weapon (try an Equip skill). And if you've done enough grinding to master Hunter, !Wild Strike ignores defense and always hits.

However, the perhaps surprising winner here is the Berserker. Berserk gives a 50% A bonus, and although not very accurate, most axe weapons not only have a naturally high random factor on A (50% to 150%, yielding a net 75% to 225% with Berserk), they also ignore 3/4 of the target's defense, cutting that imposing 50 to an unremarkable 13. Hunt Crescents on Crescent Island to get Death Sickles (43 attack) for best results. 32 to 96 A versus 13 D... that's a LOT better, though the Ogre Killers (33 attack) you can buy in Jacorl are an adequate substitute. Equip Alertness to avoid back attacks and !White Magic to heal between battles.

Actually, a team of Berserkers can do this much earlier, but it's safer to do this now. Or, better yet, right before the Lonka Ruins so you still have Galuf.

Anyway, survive the basement one way or another and you'll get 2000 gil, an Elf's Manteau, and the Speed spell. The spell is largely useless, but you might as well get it to fill one of those annoying gaps in the magic list, and the Elf's Manteau at least is worth the trouble (bonus 33% chance to dodge).

Once prepared, the party heads to the location marked on the map. Butz, Lenna, and Faris stand around a glowing, swirling depression.

She hops into the warp.

Faris also hops in.

Butz hops in too. The warp activates, sending the three high into the sky and beyond...

And yet, it seems we have unfinished business here... the rumors of something hidden behind the waterfall near Istory... the pyramid in the middle of the Sandstream Desert... the seemingly pointless climbable wall at the back of the cave near Jacorl... the minstrel in Crescent who may have more songs to teach... the inaccessible shrine on an island in the central sea... the shard of the Water Crystal that sank with the tower... the oldest book in the Ancient Library, half-missing and unreadable...