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** ClaudeLv250's **
** Ys V - Kefin, Lost Kingdom of Sand **
** Element & Magic FAQ **
** v.1.00 **
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-Table of Contents-
A. Getting Started
a1. Introduction
a2. Ys V
a3. How Magic Works
a4. Elements
a5. Fluxstones
B. Magic Guide
b1. Fluxstone/Spell List
b2. Recommended Spells
b3. Magical Items
C. Miscellaneous
c1. Frequently Asked Questions
c2. Guide History
c3. Legality
c4. Credits
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A. Getting Started
*******************************************************************************
Welcome to my Ys V Magic FAQ! Ys V is the fifth installment in Falcom's long
running Action RPG series. This installment was developed for Nintendo's
SNES/SFC game console and released only in Japan in December, 1995.
I am ClaudeLv250, aka Claude Augario, aka Jamjohnx3. I played Ys V a few years
ago in Japanese. I decided to revisit the game now that Aeon Genesis has
released an English translation patch. During my replay, I decided to cover
one of the least chronicled aspects of Ys V - its magic crafting system. With
an English patch now available, a lot more eyes are going to be on this game
now. If you're looking to see which spell does what and how to craft it, you've
come to the right place!
This FAQ covers vanilla Ys V, so there won't be any acknowledgement of changes
(if any) brought about by the Expert re-release, let alone Taito's PS2 remake,
as I've never played either one to compare and contrast with the original. And
I'm sure that a full-blown Falcom remake will materialize eventually.
If you have any questions or suggestions for the guide, you can email me at
ClaudeLv250(AT)yahoo(DOT)com.
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a2. Ys V
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If you're here, chances are you already know about Ys. I'm going to jot some
info down anyway for completion's sake.
Ys V follows the latest adventure of Adol Christin as he travels to Xandria in
Afroca and is quickly swept up in the search for the elemental crystals in
order to uncover the secrets of Kefin, the ancient lost city.
Ys V is the first game in the series to retain its overhead perspective and
ditch the collision gameplay. Adol now has an attack and defend option, as well
as the ability to jump. The magic system has been revamped. While it is not
complex by any means, it certainly is more convoluted than its predecessors,
which usually involved equipping an item and pressing a button (if there was
any magic at all).
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a3. How Magic Works
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o==========o
| Crafting |
o==========o
Ys V is an Action RPG, so the fighting is in real time, as is the charging and
execution of spells. But before you can even use magic, you must first CRAFT
it! This is done through a few steps:
1. Obtain 3 element stones.
2. Find an alchemist and craft the 3 elements into a fluxstone.
3. Equip the fluxstone onto your currently equipped sword.
4. Charge your spell and press the attack button.
On the left is your health bar. On the right are three numerical values.
The numbers leftmost are your numerical HP value. The center numbers are your
MP, and numbers to the right are your charge points.
You "charge" magic by pressing or holding the R button, which will increase
the numerical value by increments of 12-14. When the number hits 100, press
the attack button and you will cast your equipped spell. Spells deplete a
certain amount of your MP and and charge; the MP is so you can't cast
indefinitely, and the charge is to prevent you from spamming the spell over
and over again. You have to charge back up to 100 if you want to cast again.
You can replenish MP by using a magic potion, leveling up, or going to an inn.
You can't actually sleep at an inn, but simply going to one will refresh Adol.
Adol has two types of levels: physical and magical. Enemies give you the same
amount of experience points when you kill them, but how you kill them
determines whether those points go towards your physical or magical levels.
Killing anything with your sword nets you physical EXP, killing enemies with
your spells gets you magic EXP. Physical levels increase stats like HP and
STR, while magic levels increase MP, INT, and WILL, which improves your
magical attack and defense.
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a4. Elements
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There are six types of elemental stones that can be found in the game, and
they represent the six elements that tie into both the plot and gameplay. These
six stones, and the abbreviations I've assigned them, are:
Fire (Fi)
Water (Wa)
Earth (Ea)
Wind (Wi)
Light (Li)
Dark (Dk)
Element stones can be found in a variety of places. Potted plants, barrels,
treasure chests...check every nook and cranny and you might be surprised by
what you find. This applies to pretty much all items.
Elements contain properties and do not lose said properties even after being
fused into a Fluxstone. For example, a water-based enemy will absorb damage
from the Fusionblast spell because, despite being a fireball attack, the actual
alchemical combination contains the Water element. Similarly, any spell with
a Light element in it will kill the skeletons in the desert even if the spell
does not appear to contain Light influences.
Fluxstones are the actual stones that contain magical spells. To get obtain
one, you must find an alchemist and combine three element stones. You can
create a fluxstone from three different elements (Fi+Wa+Ea), two of the same
element and one outlier (Fi+Fi+Wa), or three of the same element (Fi+Fi+Fi).
This is the base theory anyway - there is a total of 18 fluxstones/spells you
can craft in the game, and anyone that's done the math knows that's a smaller
number than the possible combinations suggest. The reality is that only the
base elements (Fi/Wa/Ea/Wi) freely combine. There are no stones that contain
a fusion of Light + Dark, and no stone has more than one Light or Dark
element in the mix.
The combination of elements will determine what fluxstone you create.
For example, the very first fluxstone you will obtain is SEXTA, which is a
combination of earth+fire+water. The Sexta fluxstone contains the FUSIONBLAST
spell. The stone and its spell are tied together and are one in the same. The
two seperate names may be great for lore purposes, but for gameplay purposes,
you are talking about two names for one end result. Sexta will always bear
Fusionblast, and you cannot use Fusionblast unless you have a Sexta stone
equipped.
Swords in the game can have up to three slots for fluxstones, which you can
equip onto your weapon through the fluxstone menu. You can use the L button to
swap between equipped spells on the fly.
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B. Magic Guide
*******************************************************************************
This is a list of every fluxstone in the game, the spell it bears, the element
combo needed to make the stone, the MP and charge cost, and a description of
what the spell itself does. You'll find them listed by stones and not spells
since the stones are what you need to craft in order to use the spell in the
first place!
o======o
| Abis |
o======o
SPELL : Sandstorm
ELEMENTS : Fi+Ea+Wi
MP : 17
CHARGE : -58
DESC. : Adol jumps and drives his sword into the ground, tossing
surrounding enemies into the air. Doesn't work on airborne
monsters.
o========o
| Antria |
o========o
SPELL : Freezing
ELEMENTS : Wa+Wa+Wa
MP : 126
CHARGE : -68
DESC. : Summons a tidal wave that does heavy damage to everything on the
screen. Powerful, but VERY expensive, and painfully slow to
execute.
o========o
| Bortes |
o========o
SPELL : Thunderburn
ELEMENTS : Fi+Wi+Li
MP : 5
CHARGE : -17
DESC. : Adol does fancy sword work and launches a ball of light in the
direction he's facing in. Stronger version of Fusionblast, but has
stupidly long start up time. The ball pierces through enemies, but
it's so slow to come out...who's going to stand in a straight line
for that long?
o========o
| Bictol |
o========o
SPELL : Heat Coal
ELEMENTS : Fi+Ea+Dk
MP : 23
CHARGE : -37
DESC. : Adol turns dark and creates a circle around himself that launches
fireballs straight up into the air. The first half of this spell
freezes enemies in place; they start moving again once the
fireballs emerge. Slightly better than most AOE spells due to the
fact that it can hit multiple times.
o=======o
| Bixis |
o=======o
SPELL : Ravine
ELEMENTS : Fi+Wa+Wi
MP : 19
CHARGE : -37
DESC. : Summons a mist (?) that envelops the screen and signficantly slows
down all the enemies.
o======o
| Drad |
o======o
SPELL : Combustion
ELEMENTS : Fi+Fi+Fi
MP : 173
CHARGE : -81
DESC. : Heat wave spreads outward from Adol. This is just a fire version
of Freezing - full screen, expensive, powerful, slow.
o========o
| Ecleas |
o========o
SPELL : Heat Rush
ELEMENTS : Fi+Fi+Li
MP : 9
CHARGE : -50
DESC. : Adol emits a huge wave of light. Very long animation with only
decent full screen damage.
o========o
| Fornax |
o========o
SPELL : Megatornado
ELEMENTS : Wi+Wi+Wi
MP : 108
CHARGE : -72
DESC. : Adol spins around and creates a massive gale. Wind version of
Freezing and Combustion - full screen and powerful.
o=======o
| Indus |
o=======o
SPELL : Flame Rush
ELEMENTS : Fi+Wa+Wa
MP : 26
CHARGE : -51
DESC. : Boiling (?) water surrounds Adol. Doesn't work on airborne enemies.
o========o
| Kaerum |
o========o
SPELL : Heat Sand
ELEMENTS : Fi+Fi+Ea
MP : 25
CHARGE : -50
DESC. : Adol creates a small quake around himself. Way too slow and not
worth it.
o=======o
| Kigna |
o=======o
SPELL : Heat Wind
ELEMENTS : Fi+Fi+Wi
MP : 5
CHARGE : -25
DESC. : Adol spins in a circle before hurling a crescent shockwave forward.
The spell has a long start up but the actual shockwave is quick
and powerful.
o==========o
| Kilkines |
o==========o
SPELL : Catastrophe
ELEMENTS : Ea+Ea+Ea
MP : 108
CHARGE : -72
DESC. : Adol leaps into the air and drops down in a giant boulder. Does
good damage and it's quicker than the other full screen spells.
o=========o
| Korunpa |
o=========o
SPELL : Volcano
ELEMENTS : Fi+Ea+Li
MP : 13
CHARGE : -25
DESC. : Adol's sword emits a beam of light the razes the earth in front of
him. The range is awful.
o=========o
| Lakelta |
o=========o
SPELL : Dark Boil
ELEMENTS : Fi+Wa+Dk
MP : 15
CHARGE : -52
DESC. : Dark water autotargets a single enemy and hurls them high into the
sky. Pretty much a slightly stronger, water version of Dark Flash.
Doesn't work on airborne enemies.
o======o
| Rinx |
o======o
SPELL : Dark Flash
ELEMENTS : Fi+Fi+Dk
MP : 4
CHARGE : -30
DESC. : A dark beam auto-targets a nearby enemy, lifting and damaging
them in the process. Looks cool but that's about it. Doesn't work
on airborne monsters.
o=======o
| Sexta |
o=======o
SPELL : Fusionblast
ELEMENTS : Fi+Wa+Ea
MP : 2
CHARGE : -9
DESC. : Shoots a fireball in the direction Adol is facing. The first spell
you will acquire.
o======o
| Ursa |
o======o
SPELL : Heat Boil
ELEMENTS : Fi+Wa+Li
MP : 4
CHARGE : -8
DESC. : Adol hurls forward a boiling ball of water.
o======o
| Wera |
o======o
SPELL : Lava Flow
ELEMENTS : Wa+Fi+Fi
MP : 19
CHARGE : -1
DESC. : Adol surrounds himself in a pillar of lava. Has short range and
decent damage, and freezes enemies during the animation, but it's
still a pretty underwhelming and overall awful selection for what
will be a lot of player's second spell and first discovery
tinkering with the magic crafting system.
So you're new to Ys V (or at least never messed with the magic system before)
and you've seen the list of spells in the game but have no idea what you should
go with? Look no further! I split my recommendations into two categories: high
and low. There's also a third list of spells you should STAY AWAY from.
***HIGH RECOMMENDATIONS***
FUSIONBLAST (Sexta) - It's the first spell you get and it's reliable through
the entire game. It's spammable, it casts instantly, and it will outclass your
normal attack as long as you have decent or high magic levels. You get it
automatically anyway so you might as well take advantage of it.
CATASTROPHE (Kilkines) - The best full screen attack spell, mostly because it's
the fastest. If you want to dabble in powerful magic, this is the way to go.
HEAT WIND (Kigna) - Alternative to Fusionblast. Not bad for dungeons with
small corridors.
***LOW RECOMMENDATIONS***
HEAT RUSH (Ecleas) - Light damage spell that covers the screen. It's slow, but
it's not too bad if you're looking to do Light-elemental damage.
THUNDERBURN (Bortes) - Alternative to Heat Rush if you still want to do Light
based damage. It's a projectile and not quite as slow as Heat Rush.
FREEZING (Antria) - Alternative to Catastrophe, mostly because you'll probably
find three water elements way before you find three for earth. It does more
damage, but it's much slower and costly.
HEAT COAL (Bictol) - One of the better AOE spells. It's not great, but it does
have the potential to hit enemies multiple times, which is pretty unique among
spells in this game.
***GOD, NO!***
LAVA FLOW (Wera) - Just an awful spell. Turns a lot of people off because it's
typically the first one anyone makes when left to their own devices. Worthless.
RAVINE (Bixis) - The Time Ring already has this affect, why waste the elements
or spell slot on this?
Restores 60% of your MP. Sold in most item shops for 600G.
o===========o
| Maju Seed |
o===========o
Fully restores MP. Uncommon.
o==================o
| Celceta Medicine |
o==================o
Miracle medicine from the land of Celceta that fully restores HP/MP. Uncommon.
o============o
| Timer Ring |
o============o
With this equipped, enemies are slowed down by draining your MP.
o============o
| Magic Ring |
o============o
Halves MP cost when equipped!
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C. Miscellaneous
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A: The simplest answer is that the developers designed the bosses a certain
way and did not intend for the player to use magic and break the fight.
There is a canonical reason why Adol can't use magic during these
encounters that you'll discover as you play the game.
Q: Why do people seem to hate the magic in this game so much?
A: The simple reality is that the execution of the magic system in Ys V is
very flawed. Most of the spells are useless, and the fluxstones you can
craft depend on how good you are at snooping out elements.
Q: I can't find the elements that I want! Help!
A: It pays to rub up against everything once Massea teaches you alchemy.
Flower pots in homes, curious rocks out in the field, nondescript corners
in dungeons...there are a lot of elements tucked around the game.
Q: I have the right elements but I can't make a stone out of them?
A: It's mentioned earlier in the FAQ but not every element combination can
yield a fluxstone. The game is designed to give you stones based on
the possible predetermined combinations, so you'll never see a fluxstone
made with dark/light elements together and such.
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c2. Guide History
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Ver. 1.00 (1/9/2014)
* First publication
* Elements and Fluxstones covered
* Magic guide section completed
This FAQ/Walkthrough is the property of Jamar Johnson (ClaudeLv250) and cannot
be copied and rehosted on another website without my consent. It cannot be
reproduced and sold for monetary value. Ys V is a copyright of Nihon Falcom.
Sites that have permission to host this FAQ:
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If you want to host this FAQ on your site, please contact me.
