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 targets are always immune to the following forms of instant death:
- Banish (via !Time).
- Quicksand and Bottomless Bog (via !Gaia).
- Doom (via !Blue).
- !Iainuki.
- Zantetsuken (via the Magic Lamp).
- Raise and Arise (via !White) when undead.
- Phoenix Down (via !Items) when undead.
Heavy and non-heavy targets need regular instant death immunity to avoid the following forms of instant death:
- Death (via !Black, Death Sickle, and Assassin's Dagger).
- Phantom (via !Gaia).
- Death Potion via (!Mix).
- Roulette (via !Blue).
- Added death status (via Killer Bow).
Heavy and non-heavy targets are not immune to Level 5 Death (even if they are also natively immune to death) if their level is divisible by 5. However, if they are also undead, they are fully restored (again, only if their level is divisible by 5).
Tier-3 elemental Spellblade (Bio, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, and Holy) rather than instantly killing a heavy target weak to the element, deal at least 4 times the regular damage (because the target's defense is reduced to 0).
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:
- Aspis
- Bone Dragon (Non-Zephyrus version)
- Calcruthl
- Desert Killer
- Dinozombie
- Exdeath's Soul
- Ghidra
- Grand Mummy
- Hades
- Lamia Queen
- Mandrake
- Medusa
- Mindflusher
- Mover
- Mummy
- Necromancer
- Poltergeist