Cheesy Leveling Guide

Written by MSG Commander

aka "Easy Leveling Guide,"

aka "This Incredibly Ridiculous Super Duper Ultra Cheesy Guide to Fast and Easy Leveling Up Makes It So Insanely Easy Even A Caveman Can Do It" (And They Won't Even Notice The Extra Time and Effort Involved)

(Pardon the ridiculous title, but this method really is surprisingly simple, and does not require you to find any "grinding spots" until well after you've completed the True End. And I just wanted to have some fun with it.)

Necessary Items

Optional Items

Where to Begin

Tip from Kiljaeden - EARLY GRINDING POINT

"If planned correctly it’s possible to do very effective level grinding long before the normal ending.

In Estrella, the X-shaped island only accessible by boat is filled with only metal monsters.

With at least one character equipped with an Attack All weapon ideally with a Critical Hit boost, and an Acceleration Ring, you can grind the metal X island the instant you get to it with the properly equipped character.

The weapon doesn’t even have to have a high attack strength; even on Expert difficulty, one normal attack critical hit from a character below level 30 will still kill the X island metal monsters. It’s also recommended to have an Encounter Ring on one of your characters to speed up the search."

While playing through to the Normal End, work on adding Critical and Brake to all of your weapons. Get these two effects to at least 30, so you can transfer them to the Maid Weapons (when you get them).

Don't worry about the Difficulty at this stage. It can be helpful to play on Hard or Expert after you reach level 40 or so, as you will tend to get a bit more experience in random encounters. However, the encounters will also take longer on higher Difficulties, so it's kind of a trade off.

Once you clear the Normal End, when you reload your data you'll have to fight Nemesis again and choose the option to "get to know each other." This unlocks the way to the True End (obviously), and also opens up the east side of the Forgotten Village. This is where the fun begins...

After the Normal End

As soon as you have access to the whole Forgotten Village, get the Maid Weapons from the basement of the building on the east side. You need to use Pearls to get these weapons, so if you can't get all of them right away, then at least get the weapons for Litany and Izayoi.

Transfer your Critical and Brake effects (and any other effects you want, as long as they're over 30), and use any other weapons you have to start Upgrading the Maid Weapons.

Now, equip at least two First Rings onto your characters (doesn't matter who), along with a Metal Arkstone and a Big Arkstone. The First Rings will increase your odds of a pre-emptive strike, while the Arkstones will increase the chances of encountering titan monsters and metal monsters.

Now change the Difficulty to Expert and the Encounter Rate to Double, and you're ready to continue the game up to the True End, and gain about 400 - 500 levels in the meantime, without having to find any "grinding spots."

(Make sure to open all the magic founts, get all the treasure in the Mount Ramah secret arena, and then go on to Murk Abyss. Most of your leveling will be accomplished in the secret arena area, while you're searching for treasure.)

After the True End

After the True End, the only reason to continue grinding is to beat the bonus bosses in the secret arena. For info on recommended levels, equipment, and strategies for the bonus bosses, see Azyleo's Secret Arena Guide.

Note that in order to beat Maidame Curie on Hard or Expert, it's recommended that you grind to Level 999, and use Ability Seeds to raise your stats to ridiculous levels. You can use this same method to guickly get to Level 999, but you will still have to farm the extra Ability Seeds in order to raise your stats. (You can find more information on other grinding spots and where to farm the seeds in the forum.)

For leveling, the best place to grind after you complete the True End is on Moomie Isle in Susha.

Use the same setup that you did for the founts and Mount Ramah, etc. You will often go up 6 levels or more per battle. (If you need to you can lower the Difficulty until you can easily handle the monsters.)

You can stay here until you reach Level 999, or you can venture off to the Asdivine Level 800 Region if you want to (but beware of the Chaos Dragon; they're almost impossible to kill on Expert Mode).

(For details on other locations to farm weapons, pearls, seeds, etc., check in the forum.)

Note that you only need to grind to Level 999 if you want to fight Maidame Curie on Hard or Expert Difficulty. Otherwise, you're just grinding for the fun of it.

(And if all you want is to beat Maidame Curie, there's an easier way.)

Here's how this works:

Expert mode give the highest EXP and Bonus EXP per monster, and titan enemies and metal monsters give an insane amount of EXP and Bonus EXP. Additionally, a high Brake effect (plus the optional Break+ Ring), increases the odds of getting a Limit Break, as well as how many Limit Breaks you get in a row. More Limit Breaks = more Overkills, which equals far more bonus EXP.

Up until the Normal End, the bonus EXP you gain from all of this isn't worth it. But once you start opening the founts and exploring the secret arena area, the EXP gains are huge if you play on Expert.

For awhile, the enemies will be much stronger than you are, but since you have the Maid Weapons, you'll pretty much annihilate anything as long as you get the first turn (which is why the First Rings are absolutely essential in the beginning, but once your defense is high enough to withstand the enemies' attacks, you can replace these with other rings or arkstones of your choosing).

Note that until you level up quite a lot, if the enemies get the first turn, you could be annihilated instead. So make sure to equip the First Rings, so you have a better chance of getting the first strike.

What to do in normal random encounters:

In random encounters that do not include metal monsters, have everyone use their strongest skills. The high Brake effect on your weapons should unleash multiple Limit Breaks in almost every encounter. This means more Overkill, which means more bonus EXP. (It also means the enemies will almost always die on the first turn.)

If you have a Welcome Arkstone, you gain 2 EXP each time you use a skill, instead of 1. I recommend equipping the arkstone to Litany, and using Cataclysmic Strike on every turn (until Level 128, when you learn Seasonal Disarray, then use that one). A higher level skill equals more damage, equals more Overkills, equals... you guessed it, more bonus EXP.

What to do with metal monsters:

Metal monsters only ever take 1 damage from any skill or magic attack, regardless of the skill's Strength. (This is true even if you get a Critical hit.)

There are actually two ways to kill metal monsters.

One is to use Swoon and hope that it works (but it usually does).

The other is to use your regular Attack. (Not skills, not magic, just "attack.")

Your regular attack will also only do 1 damage to a metal monster, but - if you use your regular physical attack and get a Critical hit, then your attack will do thousands, or hundreds of thousands - enough to kill the metal monster and get a ton of bonus EXP. (I often got 9,999,999 bonus EXP from Metal monsters - which is enough to go from Level 134 to Level 170 in one battle.)

A Final Note

I honestly came across this method by accident, on my second play through. (Meaning I was not looking for a way to level up, I just sort of stumbled upon it.)

I bought the Experience Orb in the Online Shop when I started the game, and the extra EXP from that most likely affected my rapid level growth. However, even without the Experience Orb the amount of bonus EXP you'll get from using this method will significantly raise your levels without having to find a grinding spot.

This method is one way of leveling, and there are plenty of other ways discussed in depth on the forum. (You'll have to do some searching to find the right topics.)

What I personally like about this method is that it allows more casual players to significantly raise their levels, while progressing through the game. (And then after completing the True End, it makes it much easier to continue to grind for levels, Ability Seeds, weapon effects, etc., since your higher level will mean the other bonus areas will be a cinch.)