Leveling up question

[puzzled]

Is there a point at which I absolutely should level up all the new characters? So far on an import I've been able to stroll through the arvendel dome, but I haven't leveled up the charas much (guad, pet, herasia, etc). I don't want to grind levels until I have to, but I don't know when I have to.

[Kale]

It would depend on where you intend to do the grinding. Certain areas get closed off as you complete them. Such as the Holocaut ghosts in the dome area, or the Pachimi's hornets that get cleared out when you complete that quest, etc. A few party members will join/leave your party as you progress, so who is available will fluctuate. I believe that around the time you recruit Cindy would be your best (last chance) bet. I believe everyone is available at that point in the game, but Luciana/Random would both be a required party member, so you could only effectively level two characters at a time.

To that end, you may actually want to split up your grinding into two sets. One where you level up all the new LF2 characters while Luciana isn't sucking up a spot in your party. Then once Cindy joins, focus on leveling her up while alternating one of the new LF2 characters in the fourth slot on occasion.

[puzzled]

I can't remember when Luci isn't part of the group, was it during one of the arvendel dome events?

That fire guild grind does seem to be the best, I suppose Rosa would be good to wash them out in one spell?

[Kale]

I think she leaves at a couple points in the game you could just watch out for as you progress.

Spoiler: show

Maybe around the time of the wedding?

I would think Rosa could mange it at a high enough level. The trainers only seem to be weak against water though.(Possibly Ice as well) So Rosa would not be too viable an option until she hits level 51 and learns Hydrofugor. Naturally I only leveled her up to exactly level 50, so I haven't tested this perosnally. Although 488 PW with the water element and Rosa's MN should be more than enough I would think.

[puzzled]

Have you noticed that lava pool training kinda sucks? Not only does it cost 2000g, but it's mildly time consuming and annoying to complete. It does give exp to everyone (not just in your party), but is it worth it?

[Kale]

Ya know; I don't recall it I ever completed it. Once you get far enough some rather strong enemies start getting tossed at you, and it really slows you down. It's possible that with both Luci and Rosa spamming their water skills, that you could overcome it in record time though.

Then it would just depend on how much XP the later fights offer as to whether that training method is worth it.

[Indinera]

Poor Lava Pool lol

[puzzled]

Well the fights get pretty annoying. Not necessarily hard, but eventually you have to fight a pair of fire orbs that are very resistant to any form of damage. It starts off with like 3 of those weak women, progresses to the stronger ranks of women fires, then turn into 2 medium orbs, then 2 heavy orbs.

When you complete it everyone, not just your active characters, get exp based on their level (or resistance or whatever it is that the game checks on).

I think the worst part is the 2k gold cost per run....that hurts.

With Luci not in the party, is the fire trainer still the best? I can't think/remember what character is good at wiping out those fire women in one spell that is a new LF2 char (besides possibly rosa at 50).

I can't imagine playing this game nonimport. You have to train pretty hard to go through arvendel dome is my guess in a nonimport, and that's just hard considering you have 2 forced characters but you have to train a total of 12 to get through.

[Kale]

Pfft, 2000 gold. You, my good sir, did not do enough bunny racing in chapter 3.

Yeah, that cost would be a bit restrictive though. I'm wondering, do any of the orb enemies and whatnot drop any gold to partially refund your entrace fee? I'd probably just stick with the hard regular training method myself. Also, I don't think the walktrhough mentions this, but if you equip Tarabulla with a certain accessory, it increases the XP bonus you get after each round of training. Was it the Magma... something, maybe? So toss that on her when she's in your training party.

I only recall that Luci was good at clearing out the training quickly. So yeah, it may not be the best leveling method when she's not in your party. The only other character with water attacks I remember is Petula, but well, he's Petula. He was barely even worth using during the one time of the game he was meant to shine. At best, his water skill can finish off an already weakened trainer, but that's it.

[puzzled]

Petula was actually really really good when he was with me, like he was doing as well as naked 86 wendala in the water part of arvendel and he was like...25. That underwater burden and being naked really put wendala's power down the drain.

[Kale]

Ah, well, that oughta tell you something about walking around with Wendala naked then, shouldn't it?

That's a fair estimate though. I'm thinking I only got by since I put the speed shoes on her and that made her just fast enough to spam murder everything with her skills.

[puzzled]

I think she leaves at a couple points in the game you could just watch out for as you progress.

Spoiler: show

Maybe around the time of the wedding?

I would think Rosa could mange it at a high enough level. The trainers only seem to be weak against water though.(Possibly Ice as well) So Rosa would not be too viable an option until she hits level 51 and learns Hydrofugor. Naturally I only leveled her up to exactly level 50, so I haven't tested this perosnally. Although 488 PW with the water element and Rosa's MN should be more than enough I would think.

I just learned Hydrofugor...it's a single target spell. So Rosa is not the answer I was looking for, looks like fire training is only viable with luci in your team wiping them out in one spell, which means you can only train 2 people at a time, ouch. I really don't like the leveling in LF2, there is no miracle thing like the heaven dragons.

[Kale]

Ah, did not notice that when I looked the skill over. You might try one of the other leveling methods then. Even if it isn't as XP efficient, it might just be worth it to be able to level up three characters, rather than just two at a time.

[puzzled]

I think I might just forget about leveling for the tournament.

I'm pretttty sure that Indi will let us revisit it consdiering there's a prize for winning with over 36 characters. And it's very unreasonable to expect us to win it with anyone but imported characters so far. Also, the +3 hp bonus to all members is going to help the most when we have a bigger team of people. So I think it's ok to delay the tournament except to win it with random to get the shield/arcanum blade skill.

I found an area in balnuula that's nice, you can quickly respawn a pair of those brick wall things. They are annoying in that they preemptive stone, but if you've been carefully gathering equipment so far, there's lots of anti-stone equipment, shields/helmets aplenty. There are accessories too but you want to save those for seed pendants obviously. Leveling broff might be an issue since he can't equip anything, but I don't know for sure, perhaps he has stone immunity I hope.

It's the very last stage in the game, but I think it will be much nicer to level there since luci is no longer required and they can be quickly downed in a couple hard slashes, don't have to use spells which is good, and you get a couple new charas anyways.

It's not quite as easy as the heaven dragon in lf1, but it's a reasonable approximation if you wear anti-stone equipment.

[Winter]

If you equip your characters properly, you can grind pretty quickly even without forking out the 2000G. It only starts to REALLY slow down in the mid-80s. And as long as you can keep her there, hang onto Tara and give her the Magma Eye.