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7/8/2025, 3:35:00 AM
In Final Fantasy V, one of the boss in the game is called the Soul Cannon. The boss is accompanied by two allies called Launchers. The Launchers are separate enemies gameplay-wise, but visually, they're just part of the Soul Cannon sprite (they're the two small black holes, the one on the side facing the camera and the one at the top pointing upward).
Something interesting about this boss and its two allies is that the Soul Cannon has 22,500 HP and the Launchers have 10,800 HP; however, they die automatically once their HP reaches below 10,000, so the Soul Cannon effectively has 12,501 HP and the Launchers effectively have 801 HP.
Why make their HP work like this? It's because when enemies die in Final Fantasy V, they get this effect where they turn purple and disappear. But for this boss, they wanted it to have an explosion effect instead, and instead of giving them an unique death script (which might be complicated to code since FFV usually doesn't have unique code for each monsters' death) they made it trigger once their HP reaches a certain threshold (much easier to code since a lot of monsters have different behavior based on HP remaining). The reason they chose to set it at under 10,000 is because the maximum damage is 9,999, so you'll never be able (in theory) to "bypass" that HP threshold and kill them by reaching 0 HP.
However, the Launchers are also level 50, so they are susceptible to the Blue Magic spell Level 5 Death, which instantly kills anyone with a level divisible by 5. Doing so will instantly kill the Launchers and will not play their explosion animation. Interestingly, it will not play the purple animation either, since they do not have sprites of their own (they are just part of the Soul Cannon sprite).
Something interesting about this boss and its two allies is that the Soul Cannon has 22,500 HP and the Launchers have 10,800 HP; however, they die automatically once their HP reaches below 10,000, so the Soul Cannon effectively has 12,501 HP and the Launchers effectively have 801 HP.
Why make their HP work like this? It's because when enemies die in Final Fantasy V, they get this effect where they turn purple and disappear. But for this boss, they wanted it to have an explosion effect instead, and instead of giving them an unique death script (which might be complicated to code since FFV usually doesn't have unique code for each monsters' death) they made it trigger once their HP reaches a certain threshold (much easier to code since a lot of monsters have different behavior based on HP remaining). The reason they chose to set it at under 10,000 is because the maximum damage is 9,999, so you'll never be able (in theory) to "bypass" that HP threshold and kill them by reaching 0 HP.
However, the Launchers are also level 50, so they are susceptible to the Blue Magic spell Level 5 Death, which instantly kills anyone with a level divisible by 5. Doing so will instantly kill the Launchers and will not play their explosion animation. Interestingly, it will not play the purple animation either, since they do not have sprites of their own (they are just part of the Soul Cannon sprite).
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