Basic Grinding Techniques

[MSG Commander]

This is under General Chat, because I want to start a thread for basic grinding tips for all games - or, at least for a wide variety...

Here's what I've come up with for Exe Create games, where you have the option to adjust the Difficulty settings, and the encounter rate:

Note: this is not my area of expertise, as I'm usually more a casual player, and have often finished games on Easy because the battles just get too annoying. But I've done a little bit of testing and this approach seems to be solid. (Although I'm sure there are better ways to go about it.) My opinion is, you shouldn't start this until you have all four or five party members, but perhaps you could do it at the very beginning of the game.

1. First, always start the game on Easy (unless for some strange reason you really want to get owned on the first random encounter, then start on Expert )
Turn "Battle Shortcut" on (where available), and if you can set the Encounter Rate, put it as high as you can.

Sometimes you can adjust the Encounter Rate in the Options menu, and sometimes you need an accessory like an Encounter Ring where you get an encounter with each step. If you have an Encounter Ring this will go a lot faster (and in fact, if you don't, this strategy may not be worth the time it takes.)

2. In whatever location you start this in, keep fighting random encounters on Easy until one of two things happens:

2.a. You can handle most encounters on Auto, or

2.b. The Battle Shortcut kicks in, and you cut straight to the result screen.

3. When you can easily handle the encounters on Easy, change the Difficulty to Normal, and repeat the process until you can easily handle Normal.
Repeat for Hard and Expert.

4. When you can easily handle Expert mode, finish exploring that location, and when you go to the next location leave the Difficulty on Expert.
If the enemies become too powerful, change back to Hard, or Normal, or Easy, and then repeat steps 2 and 3.

You can do this as early in the game as you like, and if you decide later on that you'd rather just play on Easy or Normal, well, you'll most likely be quite overpowered for awhile. B)

[Azyleo]

I do not recommend going into hard and expert mode at the beginning of the games. There are quite many reasons for that, few which are:

1) The Multipliers don't kick in much later. Like on Level 30 and such.

2) They Break the Immersion the game provides.

3) The Enemies aren't really fun and satisfying to beat early on.

4) Your Base Stats are 5x lower than Enemies. And 8x lower than bosses.

5) You don't have all the characters or mechanics unlocked to really take fun in beating the living day lights out of enemies on Hard or Expert.

6) The Drops in Hard and Expert are the same as in Easy and Normal.

[MSG Commander]

So is there a general point in games where you would recommend it?

Or is it different for each game?

[Azyleo]

Yes, I only recommend grinding when you are like level 20-30. And this stands true for All Exe-Create Games. Even for Kreisia and Dogma ( Except for Unlucky Hero ).

[MSG Commander]

Sounds good.

Side note: just for kicks, I'm doing Folia Woods in Menace on Expert mode. For the first 4 or 5 battles I was getting destroyed - but then I realized (oh yeah, Iris gave me like 16 Heal Gummys at the start of the game, maybe I should try using some of them!)

Also, on Expert I need to use more magic, since the BP counter only refills to 100% when you level up, and I'm only leveling up after every third battle or so.

I also have Welcome Arkstones on both Izayoi and Ratona, and their skills are growing like crazy!

For someone who's always played on Normal for every game (until Normal got too hard, and then switched to Easy to finish the game), I actually like that I have to *think* about strategy even in random encounters! And even use all those otherwise useless healing items, that I never even think about on Normal!

(I might just keep it on Expert for awhile, and see what I think after going through 3 or 4 locations...)

[MSG Commander]

Ok, I tried out the method I described in the first post, and here's my conclusion:

Fighting until the battle shortcut kicks on just isn't worth it. It takes way too long (especially early on in the game, when most people just want to get the story going.)

Fighting early level random encounters on Expert can be fun for a change - I actually had to use healing items to keep everyone alive. Usually on Easy and Normal, I don't worry too much about HP because I know once I level up it will reset (well for most Exe Create games anyway.)

However, setting the Encounter Rate to Double becomes a pain in a very short amount of time. You just start to run into too many battles.

So I've adjusted my strategy:

Early on, fight random encounters on Easy or Normal. If it feels too easy, try going to Hard for awhile. Then, if you can handle the battles on Hard, go to Expert. But don't do any unnecessary grinding unless you need to level up a bit for the dungeon boss. At the start of the game it's really not worth the extra time.

Also if you play on Expert for awhile and the monsters suddenly get too powerful, go back to Normal or Hard until you're ready to play Expert again.

Save the actual "grinding" until you have an Encounter Ring where you get a battle on every step, and then just grind to whatever level you want, take the Ring off, and resume playing the game on your preferred Difficulty.

I know this is probably second nature for more hard core players, but like I said in my first post I'm usually a casual player and often finish games on Normal or Easy. So I'm trying to find some kind of guidance for players like myself, who may want a bit more of a challenge.

[MSG Commander]

[quote="Azyleo" post=2111]I do not recommend going into hard and expert mode at the beginning of the games. There are quite many reasons for that, few which are:

1) The Multipliers don't kick in much later. Like on Level 30 and such.

2) They Break the Immersion the game provides.

3) The Enemies aren't really fun and satisfying to beat early on.

4) Your Base Stats are 5x lower than Enemies. And 8x lower than bosses.

5) You don't have all the characters or mechanics unlocked to really take fun in beating the living day lights out of enemies on Hard or Expert.

6) The Drops in Hard and Expert are the same as in Easy and Normal.[/quote]

I think that for most players, I would agree with the above.

However, if somebody really wanted a challenge, then it seems like starting the game on Expert would certainly do it! (Unless I'm completely misunderstanding?)

[Alev]

I just devised a really easy way to level up early game in Revenant Saga. But it requires points. And I bought the premium edition. So with the 1k points, I bought an exp ring and 1 encounter ring alpha. Just equip the encounter ring and the exp ring on the character you wish to level up. Walk around until your req exp to level up is at 1pt and remove the encounter ring. do a battle and level up. Repeat. I managed to level up to 45 on my way to Aural City. And I've been playing in hell diff since i left candall city with no difficulty.

Although if you like the challenge, don't do this.

[Nemomon]

So... I think I can add a couple of words regarding grinding in the EXE-CREATE games.

First, I would recommend tuning off the "Battle Shortcut". During battles we get weapons and premium points. While indeed we don't get much premium points this way (though this varies depending on the game we play), we get weapons that can make our own much better.

We should start playing on Normal, and then increase the difficulty level as soon as possible. During a normal play we will experience tons of battles, and the extra XP we get from a higher difficulty really make a difference. We only should lower the difficulty when playing the bosses.

We also must remember one thing, during the very first play we really rarely will go beyond level 100~150. The real grinding starts after beating the game once.

It is advised to set the encounter rate to double. It always gives us much more XP, so we can prepare for the real grinding. Later in the game we will be checking the encounter rate to see whether it really is set to double, because the encounter rate is so small that it feels as if it would be set to half instead. When the real grinding starts, put an encounter object that goves an encounter with each step. It is advised to put it near the recovery sigil, so we can heal when needed.

Do not afraid grinding on Metal monsters when Your level is uber small. But You must be aware that this will be something different than a real grinding. This time You will try to survive the battle with at least one party member who will receive the XP. Most of times this will cause getting 10 or more levels up. However, most of times we will be killed, and will have to start the battle from scratch. Save and reload will be our best friend here.We also should equip stuff that increase our speed, chances of a critical and preempitive attacks. Because this is more annoying that anything, it is better not to try to get more than 50 levels up at a single go. I would suggest trying grinding on a single or two enemy battles. Otherwise the chances of us being massacred are increasing rapidly.

The real grinding should start at the bonus area if we have an access to it. The enemies there aren't that much strong and are pretty manageable, but give a lot of XP. If we have objects that increase the chance of appearing a big monster or a metal monster, we should equip them. The real XP comes from metal monsters, but not the ones from the Metal Empire, but from metal monsters that actually are a normal monsters but were turned metal. If additionally it is a big monster, the XP we will get will be really something.

Do not use magic. The damage output is so small that it cannot be considered a serious damage dealer. Use skills and eventually potions that restore skill points. Most of multi hit attacks restore SP themselves, so we will need to restore only single attacks. We also should use multi hit attacks when possible. They increase the damage done (by the number of hits) and restore SP.

[jesusalva]

[quote=3257]So… I think I can add a couple of words regarding grinding in the EXE-CREATE games.

Do not afraid grinding on Metal monsters when Your level is uber small. But You must be aware that this will be something different from a real grinding. This time You will try to survive the battle with at least one party member who will receive the XP. Most of the times this will cause getting 10 or more levels up. However, most of the times we will be killed, and will have to start the battle from scratch. Save and reload will be our best friend here. We also should equip stuff that increase our speed, chances of a critical and preemptive attacks. Because this is more annoying that anything, it is better not to try to get more than 50 levels up at a single go. I would suggest trying grinding on a single or two enemy battles. Otherwise, the chances of us being massacred are increasing rapidly.
[/quote]

Well, honestly, I do not like to grind to beat bonus boss etc.
I'm a casual player more interested on the story. However, various KEMCO games assume you'll do a little grinding (even on easy) and the boss battles sometimes gets very hard. Thankfully, some titles like Asdivine Dios and Asdivine Menace provides a relatively quick way, around the middle of story, to don't need to grind anymore to beat the final boss.

When I'm playing most of newest Kemco/Exe-Create games, usually when I'm around level 30, I search for metal areas and keep trying until I'm really lucky to:
Get a preemptive strike, only one metal monster, and kill it (with critical) before it gets a turn.

If you get that much luck (which can take a while, but thankfully you can meet two, kill one, and the other flee without killing anyone) your whole party will have sufficient strength to finish the story.

Now, if you want to grind, the first, basic, vital and most important principle is called "Patience". If you have the patience to endure a few hours of repeated battling (which most casual players like me usually don't) you're ready to search for the best grinding spots on the game you want (usually people post on this forum or on the walkthrough which is far more organized).

And in the games that there is Battle Shortcut, do make sure to use it when you simply don't want to press "Auto". Sometimes lowering the difficulty setting is enough to make it work. Other times, you still do not have the expected level to use it (even if can handle the battle just fine on your own)


(TLDR*) ... And I think this is all you need to know about basic grinding (at least, written from a casual gamer).
1- Exe-create games are the best to grind (for various reasons)
2- Patience is the only requisite to grind
3- Grinding is battling more than you usually would if you just followed the story in a straight row.
4- Look for tips about best farming spots on the game forum
5- The required grinding to play the game usually is “don't avoid every battle and you're mostly fine”, so if you're doing more than that, either:
A- You want to finish story sooner or be OverPowered (OP). Refer to the text.
B- You're looking for beating bonus boss/content. Refer to tip 2 and 4.

* aka. “In short” or “Because we all are sometimes too lazy to read texts and want something more compact.” - Some places doesn't use this expression, and if this is somehow offensive I can remove.
** Text checked against spelling mistakes by LanguageTool.