Death (Final Fantasy V status)

Death is a status in Final Fantasy V. Some attacks incur the "instant death" property that immediately places the afflicted at 0 HP and knocks them out (player characters) or defeats them (enemies). KO'd units will have all other statuses removed excluding darkness, mini, and toad. KO'd units are considered defeated for Game Over purposes, along with zombified and petrified units.

Mechanics[]

Heavy status on an enemy nullifies a number of instant death effects; this is a separate factor from standard status immunity: some abilities will be blocked by either immunity or Heavy, while some abilities are only blocked by one or the other.

The following instant death abilities work on Heavy enemies but do not bypass Death immunity:

Black Magic spell Death
Gaia's Phantom
Death Potion mix
Blue Magic spell Roulette
Killer Bow, Death Sickle, and Assassin Dagger

The following instant death ability even works on Heavy targets with Death immunity:

The Blue Magic spell Level 5 Death ignores both normal immunity and Heavy, but is restricted by the target's level

The following instant death abilities fail on Heavy enemies:

Time Magic spell Banish
Gaia's Quicksand and Bottomless Swamp
Blue Magic spell Doom
Samurai's Iainuki
Summon spell Odin
- When at least one Heavy type enemy is present, summoning Odin will cause him to perform Gungnir instead of Zantetsuken, excluding when summoned via the Magic Lamp, which always triggers Zantetsuken. Heavy targets will not be instantly slain by Zantetsuken if summoned via Magic Lamp, however.

Additionally, if the player uses Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Bio, or Holy on their Spellblade, their attack may act as an instant death attack against enemies weak to that element that are not considered Heavy.

Abilities[]

Ability	Bottomless Bog (Gaia), Chaos Cannon (Combine), Death Potion (Mix), Iainuki, Open Fire, Phantom (Gaia), Quicksand (Gaia), Starfall (Predict)
Spell	Banish (Time Magic), Death (Black Magic & Wonder Wand), Level 5 Death (Blue Magic), Roulette (Blue Magic)
Summon	Odin (Zantetsuken)
Weapon	Assassin Dagger, Death Sickle, Demon's Rod, Killer Bow

Enemy abilities[]

Ability	Description	Enemy
Banish	Inflicts Death to the party.	Black Warlock, Carbuncle, Chrono Controller, Exdeath's Soul, Gilgamesh (#284b)
Death	Inflicts Death to one target.	Alchymia, Aquathorn, Carbuncle, Black Warlock, Exdeath's Soul, Fury, Necrophobe, Archeodemon
Grand Cross	Inflicts Death, Petrify, Toad, Mini, Poison, Zombie, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Doom, and Sap to the entire party.	Enuo, Neo Exdeath
Level 5 Death	Inflicts Death to all party members with levels multiple of 5. Ignores Death immunity. Can be learned as a Blue Magic.	Page 64, Level Checker, Azulmagia, Executor, Enuo, Level Tricker
Reaper's Sword	Inflicts Death to one target.	Exdeath's Soul, Hades, Enuo
Roulette	Randomly inflicts Death to one enemy or ally. Can be learned as a Blue Magic.	Parthenope, Azulmagia, Death Dealer, Shinryu, Hades
White Hole	Inflicts Death and Petrify to one target.	Neo Shinryu, Exdeath, Enuo

Protection[]

Mix	Lifeshield
Armor	Bone Mail
Helmet	Ribbon

Zombie status makes one immune to sudden death, but also flags the afflicted as defeated for Game Over purposes.

Enemies[]

Most bosses are immune to instant death, the exceptions being Adamantoise, Barrier, Chimera Brain, Covert, Cray Crew, Crystal, Dragon Flower, Dragon Pod, Enkidu, Gargoyle, Gilgamesh (1st/3rd), Ifrit, Ice Commander, Iron Claw, Liquid Flame, Pantera, Purobolos, Ramuh, Siren, Twintania (Charging), and Wing Raptor.

The following enemies are immune to instant death:

Many undead-type enemies are healed by instant death abilities. The enemies who have this trait are: