How are folks leveling up the non-core 4?

[aquaricorn]

So, I just picked up my 5th companion and it really does seem like you can make some fun compositions - whomever your protagonist is. That said, the newest companion is several level behinds the other 4 and the remaining 3 will be in the same boat.

Does experience even out over the 4 in your party? Meaning, if I go back to a lvl 1 or lvl 5 zone with 3 pf my "core" characters (say, lvls 12-15) and the 1 newbie (say, lvl 6 by the end of their Ch 1), will that impact the leveling for that new one?

I'm trying to avoid deep spoilers but I gathered that leveling all 8 up has value for the final chapter if not particular fights up to that point. So I'm just sorting out what a good strategy will be.

[Melodia]

The way the levels scale they catch up decently, but there's no EXP gain variance like in some games so outside of a character being KOed at the end of battle a higher level character will stay higher leveled.
Your 'main' character is always going to naturally be somewhat higher unless you purposefully leave them dead.
You obvious want all your character somewhat leveled for the sake of their own stories, which they have to participate in of course. But otherwise just do however you want. One character lagging isn't going to make a huge difference, especially if you keep up with equipment.
And yeah at the end of the game you want everyone powerful enough.

[Sakhari]

Base exp. rewards are the same regardless of who's in your party or what level they are.

Unless you 'want' to keep switching party members in and out of your party for whatever reason, I wouldn't fret about maintaining even levels. Exp and JP-boosting passive abilities and accessories are fairly easy to get a hold of in this game and eventually, you'll reach a point where one party member is able to clear the battlefield of high-level enemies in a single attack.

Leveling becomes fairly trivial at that point so it's far more efficient to simply wait and have someone boost your stragglers later than to worry about keeping everyone even at all times.

[Zero1]

some one that is rich and powerful can help you on your leveling grind with a little bit of praying involved

[Enju]

Level up first four and completely ignore the others until the first four stories are done. Some areas will spike in levels after the second to last chapter in a traveler's story, but you'll unlock dungeons that are low enough where it won't be a problem. Gear will stomp the lower areas regardless, or just equip the lower level equipment if that's your thing.

By the time I finished the first four, they were all close to 60.

Or just use the cait/octopuff accessories you get very early on.

You can always just get lucky and get the casual EXP x 100 on Bewildering Dance. If you don't game over first.

[Izzy]

I regularly switch in and out all 8 travelers. It doesn't matter too much that they are even. They will eventually get closer and closer.

[Juan-Pedro Vidol]

No need to look for cait and octopuff, don't put the accessories, this strat is not efficient at all. Same goes for the bewildering dance, you most likely will never see the X100.
Just use the 3 characters you prefer and never move them out of the party, use the last slot for the ongoing chapter.
You'll eventually need to max them all out for the post game, that's when you'll do what Zero1 said.

[Army of Optimists]

You have to do all eight stories and you can remove your protagonist after their story is complete. I did it by splitting the characters into two parties. When I finished the first party and had them all leveled up, I swapped to the other four who were still level 8 or so and did all their chapters.

[Sage Pirotess]

Originally posted by Army of Optimists:

You have to do all eight stories and you can remove your protagonist after their story is complete. I did it by splitting the characters into two parties. When I finished the first party and had them all leveled up, I swapped to the other four who were still level 8 or so and did all their chapters.

Just lvl them somewhere. Boat fights ok for 25 lvls. Then the merchant guy, the last iland has a company base lvl 45. Osv as it pr any scholar can 2 shot these fights. 1st government bo, then thunder, end.

Other spots in g as me like this. And goods nice. Mercenaries help for 30 to 60k 1 or 2 rounds most elite bosses.

My main toon is 75, 73, 71, atm. 4ty slot for whom I do story for.

[Rielle]

I completed the main story for my first 4 characters before continuing beyond chapter 1 with the others, then swapped my team to the 4 I didn't use. My second team was a little bit lower level, since I already had most of the exploration done and used fast travel, but it was only a difference of about 8 levels. After that I just swapped them around to finish the rest of the exploration.

[ltron]

I wish we could have a party of 8 in battles rather than being limited to 4. Why did they do this?

[Gronmor]

The way I did things was I usually bring in the characters with the lowest level in my team: That way pretty much everyone was on a similar level, except of course for my starter, since you can't remove them!

[Clown Fiesta]

Originally posted by ltron:

I wish we could have a party of 8 in battles rather than being limited to 4. Why did they do this?

oh you will have to do that for the final battle LOL

thats why im grinding the fking merc and dance to level 50s now........ T.T

[Army of Optimists]

Originally posted by Sage Pirotess:

Originally posted by Army of Optimists:

You have to do all eight stories and you can remove your protagonist after their story is complete. I did it by splitting the characters into two parties. When I finished the first party and had them all leveled up, I swapped to the other four who were still level 8 or so and did all their chapters.

Just lvl them somewhere. Boat fights ok for 25 lvls. Then the merchant guy, the last iland has a company base lvl 45. Osv as it pr any scholar can 2 shot these fights. 1st government bo, then thunder, end.

Other spots in g as me like this. And goods nice. Mercenaries help for 30 to 60k 1 or 2 rounds most elite bosses.

My main toon is 75, 73, 71, atm. 4ty slot for whom I do story for.

You've gotta do their chapters either way, so I figured it'd be more fun to play the game instead of grind all my characters to the point where they were invincible one-shot machines before even doing Chapter 2.

[Clown Fiesta]

Originally posted by guns:

I wouldn't even worry about it. You strategy, skills and equipment matter way more than your level.

you still need levels for HP, otherwise you get 1 shot by the end game bosses since all of them have aoe attacks

[Melodia]

Originally posted by Clown Fiesta:

you still need levels for HP, otherwise you get 1 shot by the end game bosses since all of them have aoe attacks

Not really, there are accessories that give you 1000 HP.