There’s a fantastic amount of customization with the job system in FFV, as once you get a few abilities under your belt, you can pretty much create any kind of hybrid you require. From sword-wielding mages to dancing Blue Mages, there really is no limit to what you can muster up with this game. The only limit is your imagination! So for this piece I’ll dive into the best support and command abilities in FFV and how you can learn them.
10. Barehand/Brawl (Monk)
One of the drawbacks of having your jobs spread across your party is that you have to constantly upgrade their equipment in every town you get to. Suddenly all that Gil you acquired from that last dungeon is all gone, spent on kitting out your party ready for the next dungeon. It’s a vicious cycle. What the Barehand support ability does is allows your characters to have the same attack damage without a weapon equipped as a Monk. This allows you to turn your White Mage into a punching machine, and gives them a decent damage outlet on turns where you’re not having to cast any magic. Best of all? It negates any need to buy any weapons for your mages – as they’ll be doing way more damage with Barehand equipped.
9. Learning (Blue Mage)
Having this equipped on one of your party members at all times will eventually accumulate a lot of Blue Magic over the course of a casual playthrough. The way that Blue Magic works in FFV (and indeed many other games) is that once you’re hit with a Blue Magic attack, you’ll automatically “learn” it, allowing you to use it yourself from your Blue Magic command. The roster of Blue Magic skills in this game is huge. And so you can reduce your learning grind considerably by equipping Learning as soon as you can. For support Blue Magic, you’ll have to get acquainted with the Beastmaster Job. But for everything else just having Learning equipped will save you a lot of time.
8. ABP Up/EXP Up (Oracle/Cannoneer)
I’ll combine these two together, as the bonuses granted are equal just with two different resources. The Oracle and Cannoneer jobs were added to the GBA and Mobile ports of FFV – and both offer two interesting abilities to make grinding slightly easier. Simply put, these two abilities give you a 1.5x bonus to EXP and ABP respectively after each battle. Learning every ability in the game for each character can be a bore. So anything that makes it less tedious is always a welcome bonus in my book.
7. White Magic (White Mage)
The way that Final Fantasy V lets you juggle various quirks from different jobs together makes for such a fascinating experience. But honestly, the most practical combination is to simply learn White Magic and then equip it to a different job. Having an option to heal your HP or revive your characters in a pinch is essential in any JRPG – and FFV is no exception. The joy of being able to swap and change your abilities means you can learn this and give it to your Knight, for instance.
6. Zeninage (Samurai)
It’s reassuring to know that you can throw money at your problems to make them go away after all. In fact, Zeninage (GilToss) is a great method of crowd control, and a quick fire way to end any battle fairly easily. The amount of Gil is quite steep, though. So this is really only a viable option later in the game. But having an AOE attack that costs no MP is pretty priceless and will serve you well in later dungeons.
5. Mimic (Mime)
This one is fairly self-explanatory. But don’t let that detract from its usefulness. Mimic allows you to copy the previous action that was taken, whether it be a magic attack, item, Summon or otherwise. Mimicking a magic spell doesn’t use MP. And Mimicking an item doesn’t consume another of that item. In fact, the Mime job is extremely useful in general as just like the Freelancer, it carries all the stat bonuses from previously mastered jobs, and is widely regarded as the optimal job for magic users. Although you pick up the Mime job late in the game, it still carries an awful lot of utility especially in the end game.
4. Sprint (Thief)
This one is more for SNES players, but can still have its uses in later ports. In the SNES version of FFV there was no run button. And it was absolutely imperative that Sprint was learned ASAP so you could equip it and traverse the world at a more bearable pace. In later ports sprinting was automatic. However the effects would stack with Sprint if it was equipped, allowing you to move around at 4x the speed.
3. Dual-Wield (Ninja)
As you progress through the game you’ll arrive at parts where you’ll have to decide which shiny new weapon to equip. By having Dual-Wield you can simply equip both! The usefulness of this comes from the fact that now you’re attacking with both weapons and dealing two lots of damage. Later in the game when you start getting near the damage cap per attack, hitting twice allows you to do nearly 20k damage. Dual-Wield has another major bonus in that it pairs VERY well with the next ability.
2. Rapid Fire (Ranger)
This nifty little ability allows you to hit 4 times with your equipped weapon, ignoring enemy defense and evasion. Although the hits are only half the damage of what they would normally be, that’s basically like hitting twice with the defense and evasion ignoring potencies being an added bonus. Pair it with the previous Dual-Wield ability and this skill turns into an absolute monster. You’ll now hit 8 times instead of 4, turning Rapid Fire into a devastating move capable of winning many boss fights almost instantly.
1. Mix (Chemist)
If you’ve read my article on mixes in FFV then you’ll know exactly why this ability is number 1. With Mix you can concoct crazy and powerful combinations of items in your inventory to at times break the game. There’s even a well-documented glitch to absolutely cheese the final boss in the game. The actual amount of Mixes is too big to list them all (check out this guide for a detailed list). But essentially you can deal damage, heal, gain enormous stat boosts, and even kill enemies instantly. Once you hit the endgame, the usefulness of Mix slightly diminishes. But for most of the game (and especially low level/challenge runs) Mix will be your best friend.
