Final Fantasy V Walkthrough
3.14: Taking the Black Chocobo; the Phoenix Tower
Enemies: Ankheg, Ammonite, Landcrawler, Lemure, Parthenope, Cherie, Kuza Beast, Soul Cannon, Liquid Flame, Bandercoeurl, Magic Pot
Treasures: 5000 Gil, 10000 Gil, 15000 Gil, 20000 Gil, 25000 Gil, Phoenix Down x4, 
Aevis Killer
Blue Magic: 
1000 Needles, Pond's Chorus, Roulette, Flash, Aeroga, Lilliputian Lyric, Time Slip, ????
The Phoenix Tower is the place where dragons come to die. It is a 30-story building where succubi of multiple origins hound your steps and even the walls are bent on your destruction. Sound like fun?
Here's the deal. Most floors will have no visible route leading upstairs, so you'll have to walk around the main pillar and search the wall there. You'll basically spiral upwards. The exit will always be both left and right of the middle tile, but one of the stairs will be guarded while the other will not. There is a fixed pattern here; I'll give it to you. The guardian is random, but note that the four monsters are improved monsters, not the same ones you encountered earlier. Note also that these creatures do not affect your Bestiary; if you missed Bandercoeurl earlier, you can't pick it up here.
!Black, !Spellblade or !Combine can come in handy when examining the wall, as the three main elements can be put to great use here.
The Bandercoeurl is weak to Fire-elemental attacks and may randomly use a Blaster attack, which sets either Paralyze or Death. It is also a Magic Beast, so Artemis Bow/
Beast Killer wielders, rejoice!
Liquid Flame is weak to Water- and Ice-elemental attacks, and may use either 
Fira, !Ray or Blaze. !Ray will set Paralyze. Liquid Flame will heal itself with Firaga every second of four turns, but you shouldn't let it come to that.
The new and improved Soul Cannon is most noteworthy because of its rare 
Protect Ring steal. If you missed the one on Odin, you'll only have three. Not that Protect Rings are the most awesome of Accessories, but they are the most defensive overall. Soul Cannon is weak to Lightning-elemental attacks and may use either Missile (75% current HP damage), Wave Cannon (50% maximum HP damage to all) and Gamma Rays (sets Stop).
The Kuza Beast has no elemental weaknesses, but is a Magic Beast (also, Heavy) so you can take advantage of that. Kill the Kuza Beast quickly, as it can use the ???? Blue spell that can be very powerful considering Kuza Beast's 10000 HP. A 
Berserk spell helps, though its physicals are nowhere near as dangerous as ???? spells.
The random encounters in this area are all female demons with great items and no status immunities. Dancers or characters with 
Ribbons equipped will have a great advantage, as either strategy will nullify the demons' many status-related attacks. Angel Rings also help out, since the most dangerous attack used in this building is Danse Macabre, which sets Zombie. Two-Handed or Berserk weapons will often kill a target, and the 
Man-Eater will also prove to be very powerful (use either !Jump or equip Ribbons on a physically resilient Job). Romeo's Ballad and Alluring Air are very awesome. The ladies will often use status ailment attacks on themselves, giving you all the time in the world to strike with Syldra and the like. A Dancer with an Air Knife conjuring Syldra regularly will be a great addition to your team. None of the ladies are Heavy, so Odin performs miracles here.
Lemure is a Humanoid that attacks physically and uses Spore to Poison. When targeted by !Attack, it may respond with either Hug (restores HP to full, sets Petrify) or Pond's Chorus. It carries both Reflect Rings and the awesome Ribbon! At a later point in the game, we will be advised to not let its beauty blind us to its sins. Lemures in real life are palm-sized monkeys with big eyes for night vision; they aren't beautiful, and I think I'd rather not find out what 'sins' means.
Parthenope is a Humanoid that attacks physically and randomly uses Roulette to kill a target on the battlefield. Roulette certainly does it well. You can learn the attack with Learning and/or Blue Mages, but since its effects are the same when cast by either the enemy or you - and you're probably not too happy when you see the spell cast - you should never ever use it. Parthenope carries the 
Rainbow Dress and a rare Coral Ring, which is rather ironic considering that the original Parthenope from Greek mythology drowned.
Cherie is the most dangerous opponent in the area. Normally, it'll just use Dancehall Daze to set Sleep and random physical attacks. When struck by !Attack, however, it may use Danse Macabre to turn you into a Zombie. Thriller! Thrillah nights... It has common Red Slippers for the stealing, and a rare Elven Mantle we would have killed for earlier in the game.
The Rainbow Dress is a Dancer-only piece of equipment that's great on Defense, protects against Confuse and boosts the Sword Dance rate of !Dance and the success of !Flirt, much like the Lamia's Tiara. Dancers should use it instead of the Black Garb, but if you have a Mirage Vest to spare it's a toss-up. The Red Slippers accessory also boosts !Dance/!Flirt in the same way and has more Defense than the Protect Ring. It provides no Regen and no Magic Defense to speak of, though. Protect Ring still wins unless you want to employ !Dance and keep your Ribbon and Mirage Vest.
Ascend the stairs!
1st Floor: Left stairway is safe; 3rd Floor: Left stairway is safe; 4th Floor: Right stairway is safe.
Every fifth floor will hold two urns, or vases, or whatever you want to call them. One will contain treasure, the other will house a Magic Pot encounter! It'll guard a treasure, but the real gem is the fight itself... Magic Pot is designed to be fairly unbeatable. It has 65255 HP, maximum Defense and Magic Defense, 95% Evasion, 99% Magic Evasion, Heavy status and immunity to all status ailments. It also boasts inherent Protect and Shell, as well as immunity to !Control and !Catch. The Mute status is set across the fight, so spellcasting is out. All the Magic Pot will ever do is demand Elixirs and completely restore its HP with a nameless move that graphically resembles an Elixir.
Every Elixir you feed them will cause them run away 33% of the time, setting you up with 100 ABP. Some claim that you're best off using !Mime to duplicate Elixirs, but why would squander the awesome 100 ABP on the Mime, which teaches you nothing except public ridicule? If you are one of those people who hoards Elixirs, use the 
Wonder Wand, which can cast 
Return regardless of the Mute status.
I suggest you take the opportunity to give ABP to Jobs that are not nearly as good as the abilities they can provide you, since it'll be much easier than actually earning all that ABP in normal battles. Red Mages, Rangers and Dancer come to mind. You can do as you like, however.
If you wish to one day actually destroy a Magic Pot, I advise you that today is not the day; if, in the future, you are a better man or woman than you are now, you could try to take one down with a few very specific set-ups. If you're curious how that can be accomplished, or to see if you could already pull it off, take a gander at our guide for doing just that.
On the fifth floor, the left urn contains 5000 Gil, whereas the right urn is a Magic Pot protecting a Phoenix Down inside. The sixth floor has an open staircase. On the seventh floor, the left stairway is safe, and on the eighth, the left. Back to the right for the ninth. On the tenth floor, the left urn contains 10000 Gil, and the right urn is a Magic Pot protecting another Phoenix Down. The eleventh floor has an open staircase. Left on the twelfth and the thirteenth, right on the fourteenth for safe stairways.
On the fifteenth floor, the right urn contains 15000 Gil while the left urn is a Magic Pot. It's sitting on... a Phoenix Down! The sixteenth floor has an open staircase. Left, left, right will get you safely up the next three floors and to the twentieth. On the twentieth floor, the left urn contains 20000 Gil while the right urn is, in fact, a Magic Pot! It protects a Phoenix Down. The twenty-first floor has an open staircase. Back for more, this time right, then left, then right again to the twenty-fifth floor.
This 25th floor houses the final Magic Pot of the game! The right urn houses 25000 Gil, while the left urn is a Magic Pot protecting an Aevis Killer. How original! If you ever want to kill a Magic Pot, skip over this one for now. In a shocking twist of events, the floor above an urn floor does not have a visible stairway! Left, left, right to get you past the last three sets of hidden stairs.
On the twenty-ninth floor, the hidden staircase is right in the middle. On the top of the Phoenix Tower, a touching (and interactive) cutscene awaits you. The choices you make for Lenna's past are irrelevant for the eventual outcome, so I'll just let you get on with it.
Phoenix is a powerful multi-target Fire-elemental attack, but you may not want to use it just for that purpose; at 99 MP, it's very costly. The target you select will become the recipient of an Arise spell; the flames of rebirth that purge the battlefield are just a bonus.
Caves of Narshe:
Final Fantasy VVersion 6
©1997–2024 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)
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