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@@BenjaminNotts If you're still in the library you can get it from Page 64 (the blue head looking enemies.) You need at least one party member at a level that is a multiple of 5, but it can't be all party members or you'll game over. Find a page and wait for him to use it on your target character who is either a blue mage or equipped with the learning skill. Then win the fight.

@@AlexAshpool Thanks, but I mean when we are now Lv. 2 and 3, How can we? Thanks in advance. Also, Thanks for the BEST guide of FFV. Respected

@@BenjaminNotts Oh sorry I misunderstood. If you're going for a low level challenge then you can't learn LVL 5 Death at all. We will never have a character higher than level 3 for this run.

@@AlexAshpool Ah, it's OK Thank you, now I changed my mind to finish this game with Lv. 5 it's doesn't low enough but it's match with the game series number 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 Will ask for more in the next VDO. C round 🙏🙏🥳

@@BenjaminNotts Have fun! There's no such thing as "not low enough," as long as you're enjoying your playtime.

That's interesting, and thanks for checking it out!

Oof that's a rough run back, whoops! You'll get a lucky pattern sooner or later and he'll get melted.

You might have figured it out already but yes I had +5 for this fight.

My pleasure!

Poor Seath shouldn't have gone long.

Artorias often clips you on his first hit, which actually does knock you into RTSR range, but he missed. We take those.

They are indeed scary. A bit of a newb trap.

Also they use the Auto Berserk Blue Magic yet after it hit like lv 40+ MONKS in the Front row I could still NOT damage them AT All either.

@@veghesther3204 I beat them pretty easily using 3 Berserkers with Death Sickle (can farm rare drops from harvesters in crescent island) and a thief in back row to prevent back attacks. At level 22

Thank you for checking it out and for your comment! Life has gotten busy but who knows, it could still happen.

@@AlexAshpool It's alright, but it would definitely be awesome to see

This is the SNES version using the RPGe fan translation.

It doesn't seem to add benefit at the start of the battle but does help when she casts Protect or Shell on herself.

Glad to see some experimentation. I think Fire Rods are just easy to get more of compared to farming other gear and training jobs, but that's interesting info. You're playing on a different version too, right?

@@AlexAshpool GBA. Your videos are on the SNES?

@@andrewsutton6640 That's right! Should be pretty similar then, actually. I haven't played the Pixel Remaster yet, but I might take a look at how it differs too.

@@AlexAshpool I've seen some videos of weird bugs on the PixelRemaster on PC that crash the game when you Catch a monster with a Beastmaster and use Control ability without releasing it or something.

@@andrewsutton6640 Ha! Excellent. I can't wait.

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it! One of my goals with this run was to provide a set of tools for other people to try a Low Level Challenge without too much trouble. I tried to streamline some of the strategies to make them less random too.

I don't know if the route is different in a few versions, but I think I had it memorized after a while.

Thank goodness indeed! Can't get too fancy I guess.

Caves of Narshe is a great resource! And I have always loved that name (I'm a big FF6 fan myself.) You're absolutely right, but with this route I was prioritizing consistency, so I found the Ether grinding here to be preferable.

Yeah they're great. Unfortunately we already have all the skills we could need.

Well you can learn anything Azulmagia uses on you with the Learning ability as usual. It knows 17 Blue spells and will use anything it learns from you back at you. But unfortunately it won't use Transfusion or Moon Flute, so you can't get Moon Flute there.

@@AlexAshpool Thanks.

@@andrewsutton6640 My pleasure.

You can learn Moon Flute from Page 256 / Jackanapes / Mykale. To avoid EXP, damage them below half, use Bard's Hide, wait until they use it, then Reveal and Catch.

Theoretically yes, as condemn prevents you from gaining EXP on anything it defeats. You need a source of condemn though, so in this case we can get the Aspis to cast it on themselves with control. You can also release a Jackanapes in order to do the same thing, and we actually used that on the Lil' Chariots earlier in Galuf's World.

The trigger is actually when the 3 wolves are defeated. If you defeat the Sargeant first the transformation won't trigger and they will flee.

@@AlexAshpool thank you

It's been a little while, but I believe in the SNES version at least, that you can't actually use the ice rod directly from the item menu. You need to equip and then use it from the equip spot to "break" it. Otherwise selecting it in the inventory will just allow you to sort it.

Chemist is gloriously broken, so no doubt. Gil Toss/Dragon Power is just very consistent.

Of course the dragons are nerfed in that version because why not? :P

It's interesting that they nerfed beast master in the PC version. Not sure if it was intentional or just a side effect.

@@AlexAshpool I think the thing they nerfed was the Strong Fight formula, as I noticed lower damage from Shell Bears too. I haven't noticed changes to other monster releases, though I've yet to try any magic damage ones (that aren't ailment, fixed or fractional damage any way). I'm guessing the times 8 multiplier on Strong Fight was halved to times 4.

@@JuukaRock Yeah I figured it must be something like that too.

Oh no. I'm afraid I'm least familiar with the mobile version. You need to deal about 583-665 damage to knock it down to 1/8 hp for capture. Will Dance work? If a Sword Dance won't break control you could use that, it will just be slower. I'm also not sure what the Geomancer can do down there?

@@AlexAshpool I tried with Sword Dance and it broke Control as well. Gaia does Wind Slash/Gust/Twister/Sonic Boom, so all it does is nothing or heal it. I brainstormed a strategy by thinking of what could avoid the Moon Flute. As far as I can tell, the only option is Bard Hide. It's terribly inefficient and requires Phoenix Downs and Ethers, but still, it'll get the job done after some time. Also I'm using the newer translation names. Team (rotate jobs between characters so each one gets a Jackanapes capture): Thief+!Control Beastmaster+!Hide Ninja+!Time Magic 1. Thief Control ASAP, the rest should Phoenix Down each other. Ninja can Haste the Thief. 2. Once controlled, Thief should pass turn (or use Encircle on Jackanapes). 3. Ninja Slow enemy (may take a few tries) and Haste entire party. 4. Beastmaster Hides after being Hasted. 5. Ninja heals MP to full, then Throw Shuriken. 6. Let Jackanapes kill team, keep track of damage they do while hasted and berserk. 7. As soon as second teammate dies, Beastmaster Unhides. 8. Revive Thief first, Ninja second. 9. Thief must try Control again ASAP, Ninja should Haste Thief when possible, Phoenix Down revive each other if needed, refresh Haste if needed (Thief Haste priority). 10. Once controlled, Beastmaster Hides (with Haste) 11. Repeat starting from step 5 for 3-5 times (depends on how much damage done during berserk period) 12. When damage dealt >=583 and Jackanapes just ended a turn, Beastmaster Unhides and Captures immediately. This is much harder than it used to be, haha.

@@JuukaRock That is certainly a strategy, well done! I'm wondering if there's another ability I can't think of that can work to deal some damage without breaking the control - poison/sap? Can we even inflict it? I'm literally moving this week and as we speak so maybe I'll do some research next week. In the meantime let me know if you get through with that method or come up with another one!

@@AlexAshpool Unfortunately it's immune to poison and sap (and most other bad status effects). It also has the Heavy flag. The only reason I went with Slow was because I saw it as the only available status effect that it wasn't immune to. And sure thing, have a safe and smooth move! Thanks for the prompt responses.

@@JuukaRock would Catching Page 256 and releasing it for the Comet spell suffice?

Mandatory battles only! We eventually hit level 2, but that's it.

Best of luck if you decide to take it on, and let me know if you do any kind of videos or whatever that I can check out! 1. Honestly I'm not really sure. I started this challenge a while ago. i think if you check out gamefaqs you can find routing info from other players - the most comprehensive one is Samurai Goro's and it served as a base for much of my route. I made some changes that I believe make my route more refined, however. 2. You can technically get every blue magic in the game, but you need to capture enemies to end the fight so you don't earn any EXP. You can learn exploder from the Puroboros. Moon Flute is going to require you to have a ribbon, and for the LVL spells you're going to have to use Mix to boost your levels to the appropriate multiple. It is all doable, but I can't say I tried it (I actually routed around Blue a lot for this exact reason.) Buried under my descriptions are my blog entries which go into more details about the routing along the way. Some of it is a lot more info, some only a little, but if you didn't see it you might find it useful. I'm still planning to maybe combine them all into a walkthrough some day, but for now it's the best place to see all of it. ashpoolgaming.wordpress.com/category/final-fantasy-v-low-level-challenge/ I know you said that you don't use Twitter, but if you happen to use discord and want to chat about your route, I'd be happy to connect. Let me know how it goes!

​@@AlexAshpool Thanks! Regarding videos, do you know if an emulator lets you record gameplay footage? The only other means I have of recording is Bandicam, but I can't pay for the full version, so I can't record 10+ minute long videos. If I only want to record boss fights, that probably won't be an issue. I read about your run coverage in your site, so I have a gist on how to tackle or what to bring for difficult bosses thanks to it. I'll check GameFAQs for any info I can find about the alternate leveling route. As for Discord, I do use that, pretty much exclusively for chatting via text, as I have no mic or webcam. You mean joining a server of yours? If so, I'll do so whenever I start doing the run.

@@MrWright re Discord, even just for chatting if you want to talk about it outside of youtube comments. Can you use OBS? I know it records emulators well. You can record an local file with it.

@@AlexAshpool I'll be up for chatting about the run via Discord, but my question is, do you have a server of your own? OBS doesn't work on this computer, unfortunately. Think it has something to do with the GPU being too outdated. I've been told that Visual Boy Advance has a built-in recorder, though.

@@MrWright Interesting! I`m not sure what the other good alternatives are, did you try the recording function in emulator? I don't actually have my own server, but I suppose I could start one.

I have played quite a few classic JRPGs, most of my experience is with SNES/Genesis and some Computer games. I think generally RPGs like Final Fantasy that have some robust mechanics and CRPGs make good candidates. Did you have anything specific in mind? Or consoles/platforms?

@@AlexAshpool No, just wondering if you could recommend anything similar to FFV. Not just for the Job system, anything that allows characters to be both strong for the endgame - and postgame, if there is one - and still be able to survive attacks by avoiding or negating them, works just fine. I heard Bravely Default is similar, but I know next to nothing about that. My experience with RPGs is a bit limited, I have only played Final Fantasy up to the 8th game, Chrono Trigger, some of the Mario RPGs, and Kingdom Hearts, but the last one is an ARPG, so I guess that doesn't count.

@@MrWright Oh it all counts, I think action adventure games work for this kind of thing if there's powerups, items, or levelups you can skip. Final Fantasy up to 8 works to varying degrees and varying amounts of RNG you need to be willing to grind out. Obviously Chrono Trigger works too and maybe I'll get back to it at some point. Super Mario RPG has low level challenges, which I hear rely heavily on doing 99 Super Jumps and intentionally losing the battle completion mini game roulette. Elder Scrolls games can be done, either with or without skill upgrades. That's what I can think of off the top of my head, anyway.

@@AlexAshpool I see. As for proper Action Adventure games, I guess we could count them if we were to use something like 'minimalist' to refer to no upgrading and such. I think you can level up Styles in Devil May Cry 3, for instance. I heard about Super Mario RPG and low level, but I think Super Jump is gated behind a level you won't be getting in a true low level run, so I think you must rely heavily on damaging items like Rock Candy for offense and blocking attacks which can be... blocked, and negating elemental techniques with Armor I think. I'm currently playing FFV for the second time, and while I'm not attempting a true low level run like you did, I still wanted to gain as little levels as possible. I'm currently at the endgame with a Lv 20 party, and I want to take on the superbosses, including the ones added in the Advance version. The only other games I've done a low level run on were KH1 and 2, and Bowser's Inside Story, although while I did avoid every possible optional encounter in the latter, I didn't kill off characters so they couldn't gain EXP. I might get back to that one in the future. Thanks for the replies, and hopefully you can continue your Chrono Trigger challenge run, your content is great. Cheers, and good luck.

@@MrWright hmm... I must be mistaken about the smrpg. That one sounds intense, so I don't know if I'll ever attempt it. Good luck with the FFV run! I hope it goes well. I was thinking of maybe going back for Shinryu and Omega if I still have the low level save somewhere, but we'll see. Also, I should have mentioned CRPGs like Baldur's Gate. Those make for cool solos and low levels.

Well the good news for you is this doesn't use 2 weapons or x-fight, so I can offer you half of that. I'm not sure it's possible to win this fight without using any abilities, as you're locked into extremely low HP and MP. But if you have an idea to route it let me know.

Yes, you can, I saw one of my friends complete this game without ability!

​@@hewmengshen7781 At Lv1-4? Honestly without seeing the strategy I can't see a way with no ability unless you get insanely lucky. You can shut down the spellcasting part with Reflect Rings. You can shut down physical attacks by abusing the Mirage Vest re-equip for some versions of the game to refresh Blink / Image status. Doesn't work for all versions though. You can shut down the Almagest caster by petrifying and the only way I can think of to do that without an ability is to use the Magic Lamp and summon Catoblepas. And you can shut down the Grand Cross user by gearing Ribbons. Then you'd have to be very lucky that Meteor doesn't get cast and if it does, that it targets poorly and focuses on one member. And you have to keep extremely tight track of the remaining HP on the remaining 3 parts, because if one gets left alone for even a single turn, you're completely screwed. But I think overall you'd just be too slow and deal too little damage. You'd be stuck on the defensive unless you have Haste or Slow and there's no way to do those things without abilities.

Nope Ribbons are STILL USELESS against Grand Cross you'll still get Berserked/Confused even with 4x Ribbon users against it.

In the case of FFV, it's almost always a good strategy.

Approximately 30 or so in order to learn Escape. Then later we come back but fight Galura to speed up the process. We still need to earn about 255 ABP in total to get the various skills we need for the run, and at a rate of about 3ABP per minute we grind for about 75 minutes.

@@AlexAshpool Oooft, good job bud. I want to try the challenge for the hacked GBA version "FF5a: Custom Classes". Cheers for the reply!

@@jackiechan8720 My pleasure, thanks for checking it out! I haven't played that hack but if you get around to it I'd love to hear how it goes.

For now yes! 2020 kinda threw a wrench into my ability to make entries. I need to go back and see if I still have the save and the files. If I do I will have to try to keep going. I really appreciate you checking it out though. 2021 I'm hoping to get back into retrogaming content in general so if you like this kind of stuff I'm hoping to do more challenges and such. I also try to post updates and new things on Twitter so if you're into that connect with me there! If you have any suggestions let me know!

Yes there are more than a few in this challenge. Thanks for checking it out!

Thanks for checking it out. Galuf was using the Giyamin, or Diamond Bell depending on the translation. It is found in Tycoon Castle and is accessible right before the Tower. It's only usable by Geomancers and Freelancers, and for that particular point in the game it is reasonably strong. It also does full damage from the back row.