Final Fantasy V/The Fire Crystal

Walz (return)
Go back to Walz for clues on what to do next. In the town you learn that the king was wounded and is recuperating in the castle. The soldier you saw trying to protect the crystal and is now at the castle as well. Go to the castle and find the king in his chambers, left of the throne room. The king says a meteor also fell in Karnak and you must go there to protect the Fire crystal. Now go to the barracks, located in the 2nd floor, and talk to the soldier who's also recuperating in bed. He says something about warping from Karnak while examining the meteor there. So it looks like the way to get to Karnak is to warp in the reverse direction from the meteor in Walz.

Go back to the meteor and you can now go inside. At the innermost point is a teleport similar to the one in the Wind Temple. Step in and, after a short cutscene, you're taken to a similar teleport in another meteor. Get back outside to find yourself in a meteor just over a mountain range from Tule.

Town of Karnak
Head west, then north following the shore, turn left when you reach a gap in the mountain, and follow the valley south. You reach the Town of Karnak. There are a castle and a boat nearby but you can't enter because of guards.

Go to the inn on the east side and rest for 20GP. The Item shop is here and has the standard inventory. Go west to the pub where you can pick up some interesting gossip and complete another part of the Pianos subquest. After doing everything else here, go shopping.

The magic shop is closed but the weapon and armor shops are both open, just south of the pub. When you peruse the inventory you may notice that the prices seem too good be true. That's because they are too good to be true and the shops were meant to lure you in and be captured by soldiers. A cutscene begins.

Karnak Castle
The soldiers accuse you of being monsters from the meteor, which is, admittedly, half right. You find yourself in a prison cell. After a few moments, an old man in the next cell blows up the wall between you. Talk to him to learn that he was trying to escape but broke into your cell instead. He introduces himself as Cid, the inventor of the crystal amplifier. Cid was trying to warn people about the Fire crystal being in danger of breaking, but was thrown in jail for his efforts. You show Cid one of the crystal shards to prove that you too are trying to save the crystals before it's too late. The chancellor enters; it appears that the crystal is showing signs of stress and they can't shut down the amplifier that's running the Fire Ship. Cid offers to go shut down the ship and says he needs your help to do it. The chancellor agrees after a bit of blackmail from Cid.

You are now free to go. Talk to the guards on the way out to learn that someone called the Werewolf has been seen in the area, and the Queen of Karnak has gone missing. You may notice there are several chests and doors that are visible but can't be reached because there are fires in the way. As you leave, the Werewolf appears at the gate but soldiers scare him away.

Town of Karnak (return)
Return to Karkak to update your spells and equipment now that the shops are open for real. There is Mythril armor to replace the Iron armor from from Walz. Don't buy the Fire Rod as you don't need it right away and you'll get at least one for free very soon. The magic shop, located in the southeast corner, has so many spells that they need three counters. There are quite a few new items and you might not be able to afford everything, but keep in mind that your next enemies are likely to be Fire based so your spells should probably be Ice based to counter them.

The dungeon coming up is a bit of a challenge, but you can prepare yourself a bit by stocking up on Eye Drops and having the SilvrGlasses equipped on your main fighter. When you're done, exit town, save, and head for the ship south of the castle.

Fire ship
When you enter the ship Cid welcomes you, saying that the engine is still taking drawing power from the crystal, and that monsters are present in the steamship. He leads to you the door to the cabin. Unlike the Water tower, finding your way around the ship is tricky and if you're not careful you'll wind up hopelessly lost inside. One type of monster here uses a Flash attack which inflicts blindness on your entire party. Having SilvrGlasses equipped will make a character immune to blindness, but there is only one of these to be found in the game so far, so use Eye Drops on the rest. Mages don't need to see to cast spells, so you don't need to cure them right away, but fighters will be pretty much useless until they can see what they're attacking.

The first two rooms have wooden floors and nothing in them at the moment. Continue down to a room with a brown metallic floor where you will start to encounter random monsters; call this "the first hold" for reference. There are four ways out of the hold, not counting the way you came in. All except one are dead ends, though all lead to treasure at least. There is a door near the entrance in the southeast corner, a ladder to a catwalk in the southwest corner, a hatch on the east side which you have to circle around and approach from the north, and a door in the northeast corner which is the way forward.

The last door opens to an elevator. Check the lever on the left to go up to the next level and exit to a catwalk. Follow this to the northwest corner then ride down another elevator and exit to another large room, call this "the second hold". This room is divided into a number of sections; you start in the center but the others can't be reached at the moment. Climb the ladder to an air duct like the movie cliche. Follow this and eventually you come out in the southwest section.

Take the door here and ride a third elevator up to a small room with three doors on the north side and four air vents on the south side. Call the room "the hub"; this is where things start to get confusing. It simplifies things a bit to know that you don't need to explore any of the doors; the one on the left you just used to come in and the other two allow you return to this room after traveling through the air ducts. All the air ducts drop you onto a room full of conveyor belts. You don't have any control while riding them so you just hold on until you land somewhere.

The extreme left air duct takes you back to the southwest section of the second hold, you then have to retrace your steps to get back to the hub. The middle left air duct takes you to the south east section of the second hold, the stair here leads to treasure and the door leads to a small room with two doors. Here, the door on the right opens to an elevator taking you back to the hub, and the left is the way forward. Go right for now since there is more to explore here.

The middle right air duct in the hub takes you to the south central section of the second hold. Grab the treasure here and take the conveyor belt to the central section, then retrace your steps back to the hub. The extreme right air duct takes you to the north east section of the second hold. Enter the air duct on the right and follow it until it eventually takes you to the northwest section of the second hold. Grab the treasure and ride the conveyor belt to the northeast section; the door here opens to an elevator to the hub.

When you've explored everything, take the middle left air duct again and this time take the left door in the small room to find a save point. Save, use a tent if you've done any fighting on the way, and continue north.

The next room is a maze of platforms but there is only one way in and one way out so it's just a matter of getting through. The idea is to activate the levers which cause the platforms to move around and create a path to the exit. You should be able to find the way by flipping the levers more or less at random but here are the details just in case. Start with the lever directly in front of you and ride the platform north. Flip the lever here; this doesn't actually help you get out but you need to activate it to reach some treasure. Now go south, circle to the west and flip the lever there to extend a platform across the room. Cross and activate both levers at the other side; one retracts the bridge and the other opens a path south. Follow the path and flip the lever to the north while standing on the platform next to it. (The lever to the south allows you to get back to the start and if you do this you'll need to reset the room by leaving and coming back.) There is another lever when you're done riding the platform but this is only to get back as well. Grab the treasure (assuming you activated the switch that allows you to reach it) and exit.

You enter the Power Room where the Queen Karnak can be seen standing in the center. Approach and she is suddenly enclosed by a shadow and speaks to you as if possessed by some evil force. Flames come out of the engine and attack.

Escape
After the cutscene with the Fire Crystal being destroyed, you will have 10 minutes to escape from the castle, including time spent defeating the final guards. If you are low on health, use the urn in the room south of the save point.

While it is not difficult to escape the castle, the challenge is opening as many chests as possible within the time limit. It's possible, but difficult to collect them all. Each chest containing an item attracts monsters, requiring time. Any chests left closed will be lost forever.

The most important items are:
 * Ribbon, located to the left of B3.
 * Shurkien, located on the right of B3.
 * Elf Cape, located on the left wing.
 * Guardian (knife), located on the right wing.
 * Heal spell, located left of the entrance.
 * Thunder scroll, located right of the entrance.

You can open three chests containing 2000 gil: One is in the western prison room, and the other two are on 2F near the stairs to 1F. All other chests contain Elixers, which can be found on monsters outside. Depending on the monsters encountered, you may also collect other items, such as Ethers or Giant potions.

Before you can escape, you will be attacked by a Sargent and three wolves. If the Sargent is alive while the three wolves are dead, he will switch to his true form, Iron Claw.

Shards of the Fire crystal will fall to the ground, giving you three new jobs. The flames will also disappear in Karnak, allowing you to collect a Fire Rod. An additional merchant will also appear in the weapon shop to sell additional weapons.

Queen Karnak has been moved to the second floor of the Inn, while Dr. Cid, once you speak to him on the Steamship, is upset and will move from the Steamship to the second floor in the pub. You can learn about his grandson Mid, at the Ancient Library, by talking to him in the pub.

The wall, being destroyed along with the castle, is no longer an obstacle. The duct from the Steamship power room to the crystal room has also been destroyed.

Monsters
Outside plains:
 * Zuu, Grass Turtle, Aegil

Outside Forest:
 * 5 Wolf pack

Inside Ship:
 * 2 Crew Dust
 * 1 Poltergeist, 1 Defeater
 * 2 Poltergeists
 * 2 Motor Trap (appears after battle)

Escaping Karnak:
 * 1 Sargent, 3 Karnak (wolves)
 * 1 Gigas
 * 1 Sorcerer
 * 1 Sorcerer, 2 Karnak
 * 2 Sorcerers