Final Fantasy V/X-Death's Castle II

X-Death's Castle (return)
Before going to the castle, stop at an item shop and stock up on healing and status items, also have the best equipment available, or at least the best you can afford. You're going after X-Death himself and he's not going to be fooling around this time.

Pilot the sub to X-Death's island and enter the castle. Zeza's soldiers, who were occupying the lower levels earlier, were easily defeated when X-Death returned and are lying wounded on the floor. You can save and use the recovery spring as before, then when you're done enter the door just north of the entrance. This takes you to a small landing which then leads to the 2nd Floor.

Check around here for treasure, then go up the stairs in the center to the 3rd Floor. This is a large and seemingly empty area. Go into the main area, look around and go back as there's nothing else to do. Bartz thinks it's just a dead end but Krile senses something and asks Galuf's spirit for help.

Meanwhile, Kelga, the last of the original dawn warriors, is in bed sink. He sees a vision of Galuf, and learns that you are being blocked by an illusion created by X-Death. With his last remaining energy, he dispels the illusion blocking your way.

X-Death's Castle II
X-Death's castle looks very different now, even down to the basement. The healing springs on the main floor have been replaced by lava pits. In fact you could say it's really a different dungeon because the monsters are different as well. Now there is a doorway open to the north side of the 3rd floor; this leads to the 4th Floor.

There are arches here which you can go under even though it may not look like it. Pull a switch about half way to open a locked room with treasure. Otherwise just keep following the path that wends it's way around to the the southwest corner and the stair to the 5th Floor. The path winds around here as well but there are two shortcuts which you can spot with Secret. Exit through a door in the northeast corner to the 6th Floor.

This floor is mostly lava, but there is a path on the north edge then through the lava to the south side. You can step into the lava and if you have a Geomancer in your party you can walk through this safely. Without a Geomancer your party takes damage with each step. (You stop losing health at 1HP so you can't actually die from the lava.) Walk through the lava to reach a hidden passage leading to some treasure in the southeast corner. The stair to the 7th floor is on the south side.

There is a gap in the floor here. Just in front of it is a skull marked on the floor; there will be a number of these appearing beyond and they do a variety of interesting and important things when you step on them. In this case, it starts a bridge across the gap moving back and forth. Press the confirm button to stop the bridge, but time it carefully since the new position of the bridge determines what you can reach on the other side. At two positions you get treasure and at the center position you can go forward. If the bridge stops at one of the pillars then a monster pops out and you have to fight a fairly easy set battle. Just past this room is a save point and from there you can continue to the 8th floor.

This floor is pretty straightforward; just grab the treasure then exit to the north. It will help to have Secret to locate some of the treasure. It will also help to have Flee or Dustb here; the random monsters on this floor are dragons and can be difficult to escape from. There are rewards if you stand and fight though, since some of the outrageously priced rings from Easterly Village can be had here as drops or by Steal.

The 9th and 10th floors need to be covered together since there is a lot of going up and down stairs between them. Start by going up to the 10th floor, then circle to the right and go back down to the 9th floor. At this point you're forced to step into the lava, so switch one of your characters to Geomancer. Ignore the small room to the right since you can't go in, and go all the way to the east side. Take the stairs there to treasure on the 10th floor. Go back to the center of the 9th floor and take the stairs to the main area of the 10th. Go right a bit to see a pattern of skulls marked on the floor. There is one in the center, twelve more in a ring around it, and three more at the corners of the diamond shaped platform. When you step on the west skull the ledge leading to the exit south diappears, but don't worry about that for now. Some of the skulls in the rings, namely at 4, 5, 9, 11 and 12 o'clock, and the skull in the center, mark trap doors that fall through when you step on them. Your Geomancer will warn you before you fall through, but if you do you land in the lava in the 9th floor.

Avoiding the pitfalls, get the treasure in the east corner, then go to the north corner to be teleported to a small ledge to the west. Check the flashing light here to start an optional, but recommended battle.

When you win you get the Summon spell Carbuncle. Go down the stairs to another skull mark on the 9th floor where you will be teleported to a small alcove on the north side of the room. Don't forget to change a character back to Geomancer if you changed for the boss battle, then go back up the stairs to the 10th floor.

Step on the skull in in south corner of the platform. This causes the ledge that disappeared earlier to reappear and you can exit through the door to the south. There is another save point here and it's a good idea to save and rest. Continue north to the 11th Floor.

This floor seems to be empty except for a chest in the middle. Leave it alone for a bit and exit east to a small room on the 12th floor with treasure. Go back, open the chest, which is empty, then try to exit north to start a battle. (Actually this battle is optional; to avoid it just exit the room without opening the empty chest.)

You get the Excalipur sword as a drop, but don't equip it. It claims to have a Bat.Pwr of 100 but actually is closer to 1.

Go back to the previous save point and save again, then continue north to the 12th floor. Follow the passage to the 13th Floor where you can see X-Death up ahead. He warns you not to bother him but this just makes Bartz angry. X-Death claims he's actually trying to restore the world to the way it was, but if X-Death is for it then it can't be good.

At the end of the battle the crystals that X-Death was working on start to vibrate and, of course, shatter. You are knocked down, there is flash of red light, then only darkness.