this game is kind of grindy

[andreasaspenberg575]

the enemies in one of the early areas does lots of damage and the game provides too little money for the best equipment at that point so, i have to grind a lot.

[Doomlord]

shining poms

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

You can also sell sepith for money.

[Letari]

Don't worry about equipment all that much, the more important thing to keep updated is your Orbment/Quartz setups as they become your main source of attacking later in the game.

[andreasaspenberg575]

i know that i can sell sepith for money. i am farming that to sell it for money so that i can afford better equipment.

[Erpy]

Not sure where you are, (beginning? red insectos giving you trouble?) but you're still kinda weak at the start, but you get stronger fairly quickly. The game actually isn't grindy at all. You can generally get through the game fairly well by fighting each monster you come across once and ignore them afterwards.

The game's main source of money are sidequests. Make sure to check the board at the guild after each plot event to make sure you don't miss out on any. You hardly ever have enough money to buy everything at the start of each chapter. You're not really supposed to. Things get easier fairly quickly.

Also make sure to always get in a back attack whenever you can. And if your characters have 200CP, consider using it to kill a shining pom...they're those glowing white enemies that play boss music whenever you encounter them and run away whenever they can. They give truckloads of experience and sepith.

[ZanyZombie]

Yeah, I did all the side quests for money and killed all the enemies in the areas and never had to grind, except on my second playthrough where I grinded poms. Trails is probably the least grindiest JRPG I have played.
Edit: jeez autocorrect

[andreasaspenberg575]

i am at a point before i have any quests available and the enemies were too much so i had to grind.

[rzhao01]

I think you would be better served avoiding random encounters and focusing on monster elimination quests and chest monsters. Most people don't need to grind with experience from those.

Are you actively upgrading your Orbment and getting better spells? In this game Arts are stronger than physicals in almost all circumstances.

[123]

I played this game solely for the story line. So..here is how I did it.
Cheat Engine 6.4 > This game, obviously > New scan > enter Josh/Estelle's exp value > First scan > Fight a monster > enter the current exp value.. > Next scan > Double click that value.. > change the value to 24999 > Fight another monster > Level 50
I couldn't care less about the monsters I have to fight, I only played this game for its fantastic story. Also being a noob at RPG games, I had a lot of troubles before i resorted to using cheat engine..

It will take away a lot of fun if you are into fighting the monsters and all, so only use it if you are like me.

[Lugez]

if you do sidequests you should end up with more than enough to upgrade equipment.

[Ghaleon]

The game is super not grindy...Heck, 90% of the JRPGs out there that people complain requires too much grinding actually require none... Just for some reason when peopel get a game over in a JRPG they automatically assume that the game is improperly balanced and is flawed, but if they game over in other games, they realize they need to play better.

Anyway early game trails, those red bugs are indeed a pain. They should be pretty doable if you use arts, but don't fight every one you see or else you'll eventually run out of arts useage (unless you go back to town, but then you'll just repeat a cycle)..This game is NOT the kind where you should attack every enemy in each area, it's kind of designed for you to actually avoid the vast majority of them.

Also there's a run command, as there is in many other jrpgs, it's there for a reason.

I do admit though that the very first monster in a box treasure chest behind that tree is obscenely difficult when you first get to it. I suggest ignoring it until you get your 3rd party member (it should be quite doable before then but meh)..

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

I tackled that box monster battle with just some planning and only two characters.

[Ghaleon]

yeah like I said it is quite doable beforehand. but you'll get wrecked if you open it at level 2 or 3 as you make your very first venture outside of town and not expect it no matter HOW you perform the battle...Especially if you weren't born with horseshoes implanted into your body and manage not to miss several times in dodgy fights like I always seem to do... Any time I tackle a fight that is barely possible, and only if I manage to burn down some of the enemy dps before it overwhelms me, the misses come in packs! =P

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

The box monsters are also stronger than the regular monsters of the same appearance. They even have alternate entries in the monster book.

[Cid]

You shouldn't need to be much more than level 4 to get through the events at Perzel farm, if you're finding some of the enemies tough (as Erpy said those red insectos can be brutal) you should get some of the Attack quartz and fight the plants - it's pretty easy to pre-emptive attack them (walk into them from behind) and fire bolt is a one-hit KO.