Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy V boss)

Gilgamesh is a recurring boss in Final Fantasy V. He appears for the first time in Castle Exdeath's dungeon and fights Galuf who seeks to rescue his comrades. Gilgamesh returns at the Big Bridge, Xezat's Fleet, the top of Castle Exdeath, and twice in the Interdimensional Rift, in a warp field at first and later during the fight against Necrophobe.
Gilgamesh has the Genji equipment that can be stolen from him.
Defeating Gilgamesh in the now discontinued 2013 Matrix Software versions earns the "Enough of a Beating" and "Morphing Time!" achievements. Allowing Gilgamesh to help the party in the battle against Necrophobe earns the achievement "Made It!".
==Stats==
==Encounter #1: At Castle Exdeath dungeon==
Gilgamesh will only attack. The player controls Galuf who should win the battle by using Attack each round, regardless of job, and heal if needed. Gilgamesh runs away after his health drops to 10,000, effectively making his HP about 1,500. Galuf can cast Missile or Gravity to end the battle almost immediately, or use Zeninage.
Gilgamesh is susceptible to the Mini and Toad spells.
==Encounter #2: At the Big Bridge==
The first "real" battle against Gilgamesh. He will mostly use physical attacks for considerable damage and will occasionally cast Aera, Wind Slash, and Goblin Punch.
When his HP drops below 2,500, Gilgamesh will cast Protect, Shell, and Haste on himself, and switch to using Jump and Electrocute attacks.
Since many of his attacks rely on accuracy, inflicting Darkness will help reduce his damage. Methods include:
* Blue Mage's Blue Magic spell Flash
* Chemist's Mix status ailment items, Dark Gas or Dark Sigh
When the party has dealt almost 4,000 damage in total, the player should cast Silence on him, or attack with Mage Mashers to prevent his buff spells. Slow is also effective for countering his Haste.
Gilgamesh is susceptible to Aging status, which will reduce his stats. It can be inflicted by attacking with the Ancient Sword (found in the Ronka Ruins).
==Encounter #3: At Xezat's Fleet==
This is the first chance to steal a piece of Genji equipment. In the first part of the battle Gilgamesh will use mostly physical attacks, using Missile or Death Claw once in a while.
After a short while Gilgamesh's loyal sidekick, Enkidu, will appear and cast White wind, completely healing Gilgamesh. The player should attempt to wear him down as soon as possible as he can use White Wind and Vampire, healing for huge amounts of HP if used at the wrong time (and probably also killing one of the party members). Enkidu receives half damage from short-range attacks and the player still has to deal with Gilgamesh. Enkidu only has 4,000 HP and can be silenced, or even confused. After Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh will eventually flee and end the battle.
An easy way to defeat Gilgamesh instantly without having him summon Enkidu is to use the Blue Magic Dark Spark followed by Level 5 Death. Due to rounding, Dark Spark will reduce his level to 15.
Another easy way to defeat Gilgamesh is attack him with Death Sickle(s), which can be acquired in Bartz's world. Death Sickle has 33% chance of inflicting instant death. If lucky, Gilgamesh can be eliminated before he can summon Enkidu. Yet another but a cumbersome way to attempt instant death is to release a Mani Wizard or an Aquathorn onto him with a Beastmaster to cast Death.
==Encounter #4: At Castle Exdeath==
The player's fourth confrontation against Gilgamesh and the last "real" one. The fight can be skipped by not opening the treasure chest in the room after the save point, but then the player will not receive the Excalipoor or be able to steal his Genji Helm, and Gilgamesh will not appear again in the Void, neither at the beginning of the Inner Sanctum nor during the fight against Necrophobe. If the player chooses to fight Gilgamesh and manages to defeat him before he is sucked into the Void, either before or after he morphs, he will appear at the beginning of the Inner Sanctum but not against Necrophobe.
===Battle===
Gilgamesh uses a wide set of ailment-inducing skills in addition to his normal physical attacks:
* Dischord halves a character's level.
* Dancehall Daze attempts to inflict Sleep on one character.
* Hurricane attempts to reduce a character's HP to single digits.
* Rocket Punch deals damage equal to half of the target's current HP and also attempts to inflict Confuse.
* Blue Magic Lilliputian Lyric attempts to inflict Mini on one character.
* Blue Magic Flash attempts to inflict Darkness on the whole party.
* Blue Magic Pond's Chorus attempts to inflict Toad on one character.
* Blue Magic Time Slip attempts to inflict Aging and Sleep on one character.
He is vulnerable to Slow.
After receiving more than 13,000 damage, Gilgamesh begins a scripted sequence. Gilgamesh will talk with the party while taking five more turns. 
He will then morph into a more threatening looking form. However, because he mistook the Excalipoor for Excalibur, his attacks are much weaker. This form only uses weak normal physicals for four turns. After that, Exdeath interferes and casts Banish on Gilgamesh to send him to the Void.
====Strategy====
Gilgamesh can only knock out a party member through his physical attacks. Thus, summoning Golem is useful here. Slow can also be afflicted to reduce the pace of his attacks.
The player's main concern will be keeping the characters free of ailments. The non-healers in the party can use recovery items for most of them. For Sleep and Confusion, the player can have a character switch their weapon to the Healing Staff and attack the afflicted party member to remove those status ailments. 
This battle is a good opportunity to learn Blue Magic spells that the player may have missed.
Due to his high maximum HP, the 13,000 damage threshold can be reached very quickly by releasing monsters with elemental fractional damage abilities. While Gilgamesh does possess the Heavy flag, this only protects him against the Gravity family of spells. Two of these monster releases are enough to start the scripted sequence:
* Magic Dragons can be caught in "Castle Exdeath - Keep" (the room before the save point) and casts Blaze for 25% of max HP damage.
* Yellow Dragons can be caught on "Castle Exdeath - 9th Floor" (two rooms before the save point) and casts Lightning for 25% of max HP damage.
Once Gilgamesh begins talking, the player can stop attacking and focus solely on blocking his attacks and healing. When he transforms, the party's priority is to steal the Genji Helm from him.
If the player is powerful enough to deal the necessary amount of damage in one turn, it is possible to kill Gilgamesh without him transforming. In doing so the party misses out on receiving the Excalipoor.
==Encounter #5: At the Interdimensional Rift==
Gilgamesh will mistake the player's party for an enemy and attack; he deals moderate damage, but that is the only thing he will do. After his first attack, he will attack twice in one turn from then on. After taking 7000 or more damage, he will recognize the party and walk away. The party should steal his valuable Genji Shield. It is possible to defeat him before he recognizes the party, but he will still walk away after the battle and this will have no impact on his final appearance against Necrophobe.
==Encounter #6: Against Necrophobe==
This is the final encounter with Gilgamesh who appears after the player has reduced Necrophobe to below 9,999 HP. The party should steal the final piece of the Genji equipment, the Genji Armor, but he will sacrifice himself to defeat Necrophobe shortly after appearing.
==Behind the scenes==
The enemy ability known as Resploder in the PS version and Chain Detonation in the GBA version, is named ゆうばく in Japanese. It may have been intended to be a special attack (as it appears in the attack lists for Ramuh, Catoblepas, Sekhmet, Sandworm, Exdeath's normal and tree forms, Archeoaevis, Gilgamesh, and Wendigo), but it is just a normal physical attack. Crystal Dragon has it as a Catch/Release ability, but when used as a Release it acts the same as a normal Attack. The ability was removed (at least from Crystal Dragon) in the iOS version.
==Gallery==
Gilgamesh FFV Art.jpg|Concept artwork by Tetsuya Nomura.
Gilgamesh FFV Art (transformed).jpg|Concept artwork of Gilgamesh's transformed state by Tetsuya Nomura.
Gilgamesh1-ffv-ios.png|First form
Gilgamesh2-ffv-ios.png|Second form
Wind SlashFFV.png|Wind Slash.
FFV Gilgamesh Bestiary.jpg|Gilgamesh's bestiary entry (GBA).
FFV-iOS-Ach-Morphing_Time.png|"Morphing Time!" achievement icon in the 2013 version.
FFV-iOS-Ach-Made_It.png|"Made It!" achievement icon in the 2013 version.
==Related enemies==
*Enkidu
de:Gilgamesch (FFV)
it:Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy V)
Final Fantasy V
Category:Bosses in Final Fantasy V