All pieces of equipment in Final Fantasy V are characterized by primary stat boosts and special properties.
Primary stat boost[]
The primary stat boost depends on the class of equipment:
- Attack for weapons.
- Defense, magic defense, evasion, magic evasion, and Weight for armor, and accessories.
Action category[]
All actions in the game possess an action category. The action category of regular attacks (and some commands) depends on the weapon that was used to attack:
- Physical: possessed by most weapons.
- Aerial: possessed by all bows, all whips, the Rising Sun, and the Thor's Hammer.
- Black: possessed by all rods, and the Rune Axe.
- Song: possessed by all bells, and all harps.
Most weapons possess the Physical action category. Enemies (not party members) have sometimes the property of not being able to evade actions related to certain actions categories (discounting the image status for physical actions).
Special properties[]
Special properties include everything else that pieces of equipment do or provide when equipped on a character. Some special properties apply only to certain classes of equipment, while certain other properties are shared by all classes. Some properties work differently depending on the class of equipment.
Added ability[]
Weapon-exclusive property. Attacking with the weapon may trigger a spell or another ability after dealing damage or instead of dealing damage. If the added ability is a spell, it can be triggered but miss due to the target's magic evasion and/or status immunity. It can also be reflected (including status-inflicting spells like death via the Assassin's Dagger).
Added status (weapons)[]
Attacking with the weapon may inflict a positive or negative status after dealing damage or instead of dealing damage. Added statuses, unlike status-inflicting added abilities, cannot be reflected (e.g, death via Killer Bow).
Added status (armor and accessories)[]
The piece of equipment bestows a status on the wearer at the beginning of the battle. The status can be permanent (e.g. haste via Hermes Sandals) or subject to removal conditions (e.g. image via Mirage Vest).
Added type[]
The piece of equipment adds a type on the wearer at the beginning of the battle. The added type is permanent throughout the battle. The only instance of such property is the Bone Mail adding the undead type on its wearer.
Catcher[]
The piece of equipment has a fixed probability of catching incoming evadable physical and/or magical actions during the early stages hit determination, before the action's accuracy and the target's relevant evasion are factored in. Multiple concurrent instances of this special property are checked independently (e.g., Main Gauche and Elven Mantle). The ability Shirahadori (not a piece of equipment) works similarly.
| Name | Type | Probability | Blocked actions | Visual effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main Gauche | Weapon | 25% | Single-target physical attacks and commands | Blade |
| Sasuke's Katana | Weapon | 25% | Single-target physical attacks and commands | Blade |
| Defender | Weapon | 25% | Single-target physical attacks and commands | Blade |
| Elven Mantle | Accessory | 33% | Single-target physical attacks and commands | Mantle |
| Aegis Shield | Shield | 33% | Magical attacks (excluding physical spells) | Shield |
Critical hit[]
Weapon-exclusive property. The weapon has a non-zero probability of dealing a critical hit (at least twice the regular damage).
Double grip[]
Weapon-exclusive property. The weapon either can or must be double-gripped.
- If the weapon can be double-gripped, the Two-Handed support ability allows it to deal double damage in exchange for not being able to equip a shield or a second weapon.
- If the weapon must be double-gripped (applicable to most bows and all harps), and no damage bonus is applied.
Elemental (weapons)[]
The weapon has one or more innate elements (fire, ice, lightning, earth, wind, water, poison, holy) when physically attacking or executing physical commands. It will:
- Deal increased damage (at least twice the regular damage) when striking targets weak to the weapon's element.
- Heal targets (ignoring defense and magic defense) that absorb the weapon's element.
- Deal at most half damage to targets that resist the weapon's element.
- Deal 0 damage to targets that nullify the weapon's element.
All such elemental affinities for physical attacks/commands are overridden by elemental spellblades.
Elemental (armor and accessories)[]
The piece of equipment interacts with one or more elements (fire, ice, lightning, earth, wind, water, poison, holy) when the wearer is the target of elemental damage. It will:
- Increase the incurred damage (at least twice the regular damage) when the wearer is on the receiving end of an elemental attacks to which the gear is weak to.
- Heal the wearer (ignoring defense and magic defense) that is on the receiving end of an elemental attack that the gear absorbs.
- Roughly halve the incurred damage when the wearer is on the receiving end of an elemental attacks that the gear resists.
- Make the wearer nullify damage from incoming elemental attacks that the gear negate. Depending on the attack type and the specific gear, the damage might be displayed as 0, or not shown at all. In the latter case, the attack is still not considered evaded.
In case multiple equipped pieces of armor / accessories provide different levels of protection (Absorbs, Negates, Halves, Weak to) against the same element, the following hierarchy applies:
- Absorbs overrides everything else.
- Negates overrides Halves and Weak to.
- Halves overrides Weak to and does not stack with itself.
Elemental magic booster[]
The piece of equipment boosts the damage of certain elemental magical attacks performed by the character equipping it up to 1.5 times the regular damage. The boosted elements can be more than one. For example, equipping the Gaia's bell or the Gaia Gear boosts the power of earth-elemental spells, such as the Titan summon. Elemental magic boosters do not stack with themselves (e.g., equipping both the Gaia's Bell and the Gaia Gear does not boost earth-elemental spells more than equipping only one of them).
Item magic[]
Weapon-exclusive property. The weapon can be used as an item in the battle menu to unlock its special ability. Some weapons will break after the ability is executed. Prior to the Pixel Remaster version, a weapon needed to be equipped to be used as an item. In the Pixel Remaster version, this is not longer necessary, which allows for boosted elemental spells via breaking certain elemental rods directly from the item battle menu while having a spare one equipped (which will not break).
Probability booster[]
The piece of equipment boosts the probability of certain probabilistic outcomes (e.g. the Hypno Crown boosts the likelihood of success of !Control against vulnerable targets).
Row interaction[]
Weapon-exclusive property. The damage dealt by the weapon depends on the attacker's and target's row when attacking or being used with certain physical commands. Weapons unaffected by row have Back row OK or Full power from back row in their in-game description.
Rune[]
Weapon-exclusive property. The weapon applies the rune modifiers after the base sub-formulas, meaning they will expend the wielder's MP to deal increased damage as long as the wielder has enough MP to execute the powered-up attack.
This property is exclusive to the Rune Axe, the Rune Blade, and the Rune Chime
Spellblade[]
Weapon-exclusive property. The weapon is compatible with the !Spellblade command. Elemental spellblades override all original elemental affinities with regard to physical attacks and commands.
Stat booster (weapons)[]
The weapon boosts or decreases one or more stats (other than attack) while equipped. Stamina boosts/penalties do not count towards max HP, and Magic boosts/penalties do not count towards max MP.
Stat booster (armor and accessories)[]
The piece of equipment boosts or decreases one or more stats (other than defense, magic defense, evasion, magic evasion, and weight) while equipped. Stamina boosts/penalties do not count towards max HP, and Magic boosts/penalties do not count towards max MP.
Status immunities[]
Exclusive to armor and accessories. The piece of equipment makes the wearer immune to one or more status ailments.
Strong against (attacks)[]
Weapon-exclusive property. The weapon deals increased damage (at least twice the regular damage) with physical attacks/commands to certain target types, such as avian enemies, dragons, magic beasts, humans, or undead. In the Pixel Remaster version, all bows, besides the Magic Bow, and all whips, now deal more damage to avian enemies.
Strong against (spells)[]
Weapon-exclusive property. The weapon deals greatly increased damage (up to 8 times the regular damage) with magical attacks to certain target types, such as dragons, or undead. Only certain weapons that attack with spells (namely the Apollo's Harp and the Sage's Staff) have this property.
The Aqua Breath Blue spell (not a piece of equipment) is the only other action in the game that possesses this property (against desert-type targets).
Throwable[]
Weapon-exclusive property. The weapon can be thrown via the !Throw command.
Miscellaneous[]
The piece of equipment has additional special properties that do not belong to any of the other categories.