When should I grind for cp and gils?

[Big_Snek]

So, right now I'm 38 hours into the game. I'm at chapter 11 right now. I feel like my weapon and accessories' level is too low. I started searching and watching some guides to farm gil and cp but I feel like my char is not strong enough right now to farm easily. Which is why I'm wondering if I should grind after I finish the game or should I grind right now. Thanks.

[Big_Snek]

Welp,I forgot to put the level. All of my weapon are at level 3 and most of my acc are at level 2

[Kargor]

There are two aspects to this. First is that chapter 11 gives the opportunity to get CP (and probably gils too, but I didn't care all that much). I found that some enemies became much easier as I stuck around in chapter 11 for a while, while others were a big no-go.

However, almost at the end of the game, there's the opportunity for much much much better CP farming (single opponent, 32K CP); I used that to max out all my CP on all chars before going to the final boss. So, basically, whatever CP you didn't get in chapter 11 can be obtained there, and much faster. However, I can't tell how easy it is to get there without spending some time in chapter 11 like I did.

I actually farmed a bit of gil at another location, although I don't remember the chapter -- a big tower with a comparatively simple quest, where the quest giver was in the same room as the target, yielding some sellable item.

I don't know much about levels, though. The upgrade system felt tedious and very unclear, and I actually ruined some accessories because they completely changed what they did after an upgrade.

As for post game -- since the "before the boss" spot is not available anymore after the game, and chapter 11 is far too tedious, I didn't do anything. This also means there are still some extra quests that I didn't do, and some enemies (those big 'Oliphaunt' things with the armor pieces) I couldn't kill, like, at all. Not even when I encountered one on my way from chapter 11 to the end -- but then, the game didn't really expect me to be able to do that: it was easy to just walk past it, and when one appeared in a cutscene as well it actually broke the floor due to its weight and fell down.

[tiornys]

So, there's a few ways to answer this depending on your motivations and goals.

If your primary concern is just to get resources for developing your weapons and accessories, don't even think about grinding until you've exploited chapter 11 for its massive wealth. Scattered throughout the chapter are various rewards totalling over a million gil, plus catalysts and components worth several hundreds of thousands more gil. For most purposes this infusion of wealth is easily enough to carry you through the end of the story and into postgame.

If your primary concern is to make fighting easier, I don't recommend grinding because grinding is much less efficient than improving your strategies and tactics, starting with your team choice and paradigm deck composition. The key upgrades for supporting various strategies can be funded just with what you should have brought into the chapter plus the rewards you get following the storyline. That said, if you still want to grind there are some pretty good spots in chapter 11.

If your primary concern is to maximize the return on time spent grinding, you should wait until chapter 13 which contains both the most lucrative gil grinding spot in the game (4x Sacrifice when fast respawn ramp is still available) and the best practical CP grinding spot in the game (Wladislaus, mentioned in the previous post).

Let me know which interests you and I can go into more detail.

[Big_Snek]

Originally posted by tiornys:

So, there's a few ways to answer this depending on your motivations and goals.

If your primary concern is just to get resources for developing your weapons and accessories, don't even think about grinding until you've exploited chapter 11 for its massive wealth. Scattered throughout the chapter are various rewards totalling over a million gil, plus catalysts and components worth several hundreds of thousands more gil. For most purposes this infusion of wealth is easily enough to carry you through the end of the story and into postgame.

If your primary concern is to make fighting easier, I don't recommend grinding because grinding is much less efficient than improving your strategies and tactics, starting with your team choice and paradigm deck composition. The key upgrades for supporting various strategies can be funded just with what you should have brought into the chapter plus the rewards you get following the storyline. That said, if you still want to grind there are some pretty good spots in chapter 11.

If your primary concern is to maximize the return on time spent grinding, you should wait until chapter 13 which contains both the most lucrative gil grinding spot in the game (4x Sacrifice when fast respawn ramp is still available) and the best practical CP grinding spot in the game (Wladislaus, mentioned in the previous post).

Let me know which interests you and I can go into more detail.

Ah okay, my primary concern is to develop my weapon and accessories because I feel like like it's kind of bad lol. Well then, maybe I'll try explore chapter 11 and do everything I can first. Thanks for the advice.

[Big_Snek]

Originally posted by Kargor:

There are two aspects to this. First is that chapter 11 gives the opportunity to get CP (and probably gils too, but I didn't care all that much). I found that some enemies became much easier as I stuck around in chapter 11 for a while, while others were a big no-go.

However, almost at the end of the game, there's the opportunity for much much much better CP farming (single opponent, 32K CP); I used that to max out all my CP on all chars before going to the final boss. So, basically, whatever CP you didn't get in chapter 11 can be obtained there, and much faster. However, I can't tell how easy it is to get there without spending some time in chapter 11 like I did.

I actually farmed a bit of gil at another location, although I don't remember the chapter -- a big tower with a comparatively simple quest, where the quest giver was in the same room as the target, yielding some sellable item.

I don't know much about levels, though. The upgrade system felt tedious and very unclear, and I actually ruined some accessories because they completely changed what they did after an upgrade.

As for post game -- since the "before the boss" spot is not available anymore after the game, and chapter 11 is far too tedious, I didn't do anything. This also means there are still some extra quests that I didn't do, and some enemies (those big 'Oliphaunt' things with the armor pieces) I couldn't kill, like, at all. Not even when I encountered one on my way from chapter 11 to the end -- but then, the game didn't really expect me to be able to do that: it was easy to just walk past it, and when one appeared in a cutscene as well it actually broke the floor due to its weight and fell down.

Yea, I agree some enemy is pure ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. I can't even defeat behemoth king because of ♥♥♥♥♥♥ rng where it uses sunder attack. Okay then, I'll just progress and explore. Thanks for the answer.

[tiornys]

Originally posted by Big_Snek:

Ah okay, my primary concern is to develop my weapon and accessories because I feel like like it's kind of bad lol. Well then, maybe I'll try explore chapter 11 and do everything I can first. Thanks for the advice.

Quick summary of the major chapter 11 hauls: completing mission 14 unlocks Chocobos, which lets you access over 200,000 gil worth of things. Completing the Repair Bhakti quest in Oerba can give you over 500,000 gil plus other valuables.

More comprehensive list of chapter 11 valuables (not counting the Faultwarrens):
Unlock Chocobos via mission 14 and you'll gain access to the following from unguarded treasure balls and otherwise fixed treasures:
--2 Gold Nuggets (sell for 60,000 gil ea.)
--1 Cactuar Doll (12,000 gil)
--2 Mnar Stone*
--1 Scarletite (the only one you're likely to get before the end of the chapter)
--1 Platinum Bangle (use for the HP, or sell for 24,000 gil)
--1 Tetradic Crown and 1 Tetradic Tiara (these can be used to obtain Sprint Shoes)
--1 Entite Ring (sell for 60,000 gil)

Plus miscellaneous smaller treasures. If you're willing to clear out some guarded treasures, you can also pick up 2 more Gold Nuggets and 2 more Platinum Bangles.

The optional area in Mah'habara contains a Moogle Puppet (18,000 gil), 1 Perovskite (useful for creating Auto-buff accessories), and some high XP value components (7 Perfect Conductor, 4 Particle Accelerator), although some of those are locked behind a mission. Later in the chapter, you can complete a sidequest (Repair Bhakti!) that offers the following rewards:
--10 Deceptisol
--2 Ultracompact Reactor (best XP value component)
--1 Gold Nugget
--5 Perfume (12,500 gil ea.)
--3 Platinum Ingot (150,000 gil ea.)

You also have the opportunity to collect numerous treasures along the main story path (in some cases, they are forced upon you). Of particular note:
--4 Particle Accelerator
--3 Perfect Conductor
--1 Mnar Stone
--1 Uraninite
--6 Moonblossom Seed (6,000 gil ea.)
--1 Diamond Bangle (use, or sell for 36,000 gil)
--1 Collector Catalog*
--1 Perovskite
--1 Moogle Puppet
--1 Tetradic Tiara
--1 Goddess's Favor (max and dismantle for a Scarletite, a Perfume, and a Ribbon)

The extra missions you're doing will yield an array of accessories, components, and catalysts, often reasonably valuable.

*: Mnar Stones are fairly useless on their own, but they do transform a Collector Catalog into a Connoisseur Catalog. You can find 3 Collector Catalogs scattered about chapter 11. One is typically kept for farming and one is typically transformed for farming, leaving you with one extra. Transform that one into a Connoisseur Catalog with one of the 3 Mnar Stones you can find, and you can sell it for 125,000 gil.

re: Behemoth King, the easiest way to kill one at your current development is to avoid letting it transform. Sunder can't wreck you if you never let it use that attack. There are a few different ways to go about this: you can stagger one before you trigger the transformation and then juggle it until dead, or you can set up to deal massive damage and drop it from above the transformation point to dead before it can stand, or you can use Vigilance and/or Curse to make it vulnerable to disruption and keep it in hitstun with a constant stream of attacks.

[Big_Snek]

Originally posted by tiornys:

Originally posted by Big_Snek:

Ah okay, my primary concern is to develop my weapon and accessories because I feel like like it's kind of bad lol. Well then, maybe I'll try explore chapter 11 and do everything I can first. Thanks for the advice.

Quick summary of the major chapter 11 hauls: completing mission 14 unlocks Chocobos, which lets you access over 200,000 gil worth of things. Completing the Repair Bhakti quest in Oerba can give you over 500,000 gil plus other valuables.

More comprehensive list of chapter 11 valuables (not counting the Faultwarrens):
Unlock Chocobos via mission 14 and you'll gain access to the following from unguarded treasure balls and otherwise fixed treasures:
--2 Gold Nuggets (sell for 60,000 gil ea.)
--1 Cactuar Doll (12,000 gil)
--2 Mnar Stone*
--1 Scarletite (the only one you're likely to get before the end of the chapter)
--1 Platinum Bangle (use for the HP, or sell for 24,000 gil)
--1 Tetradic Crown and 1 Tetradic Tiara (these can be used to obtain Sprint Shoes)
--1 Entite Ring (sell for 60,000 gil)

Plus miscellaneous smaller treasures. If you're willing to clear out some guarded treasures, you can also pick up 2 more Gold Nuggets and 2 more Platinum Bangles.

The optional area in Mah'habara contains a Moogle Puppet (18,000 gil), 1 Perovskite (useful for creating Auto-buff accessories), and some high XP value components (7 Perfect Conductor, 4 Particle Accelerator), although some of those are locked behind a mission. Later in the chapter, you can complete a sidequest (Repair Bhakti!) that offers the following rewards:
--10 Deceptisol
--2 Ultracompact Reactor (best XP value component)
--1 Gold Nugget
--5 Perfume (12,500 gil ea.)
--3 Platinum Ingot (150,000 gil ea.)

You also have the opportunity to collect numerous treasures along the main story path (in some cases, they are forced upon you). Of particular note:
--4 Particle Accelerator
--3 Perfect Conductor
--1 Mnar Stone
--1 Uraninite
--6 Moonblossom Seed (6,000 gil ea.)
--1 Diamond Bangle (use, or sell for 36,000 gil)
--1 Collector Catalog*
--1 Perovskite
--1 Moogle Puppet
--1 Tetradic Tiara
--1 Goddess's Favor (max and dismantle for a Scarletite, a Perfume, and a Ribbon)

The extra missions you're doing will yield an array of accessories, components, and catalysts, often reasonably valuable.

*: Mnar Stones are fairly useless on their own, but they do transform a Collector Catalog into a Connoisseur Catalog. You can find 3 Collector Catalogs scattered about chapter 11. One is typically kept for farming and one is typically transformed for farming, leaving you with one extra. Transform that one into a Connoisseur Catalog with one of the 3 Mnar Stones you can find, and you can sell it for 125,000 gil.

re: Behemoth King, the easiest way to kill one at your current development is to avoid letting it transform. Sunder can't wreck you if you never let it use that attack. There are a few different ways to go about this: you can stagger one before you trigger the transformation and then juggle it until dead, or you can set up to deal massive damage and drop it from above the transformation point to dead before it can stand, or you can use Vigilance and/or Curse to make it vulnerable to disruption and keep it in hitstun with a constant stream of attacks.

I see, i'm really thankful for the advice. Well then, I should finish this chapter first then I'll come back to farm. Thank you, cheers.

[Crayon-Sha]

I completed the game recently. You shouldn't worry about these things, honestly. I did most of the available Cieth missions, while ignoring the harder ones, then progressed with the story. You shouldn't need to grind to beat the game, and you can return to Gran Pulse later so it's not like you'll miss anything. I wouldn't bother grinding until after you've beaten FF13. I'm killing Adamantoises and I'm glad I didn't waste hours of my life routinely slaying Sacrifices or other similar monsters for less CP and wealth.

Also, I moved onto Chapter 12 after staying in Gran Pulse for around 23 hours, so for me that would've been 43 hours of total gametime. Afterwards it took me 7 hours to beat the rest of the game.

[Big_Snek]

Originally posted by Crayon-Sha:

I completed the game recently. You shouldn't worry about these things, honestly. I did most of the available Cieth missions, while ignoring the harder ones, then progressed with the story. You shouldn't need to grind to beat the game, and you can return to Gran Pulse later so it's not like you'll miss anything. I wouldn't bother grinding until after you've beaten FF13. I'm killing Adamantoises and I'm glad I didn't waste hours of my life routinely slaying Sacrifices or other similar monsters for less CP and wealth.

Also, I moved onto Chapter 12 after staying in Gran Pulse for around 23 hours, so for me that would've been 43 hours of total gametime. Afterwards it took me 7 hours to beat the rest of the game.

Alright, thanks man. Appreciate it

[tiornys]

Originally posted by Crayon-Sha:

I'm killing Adamantoises and I'm glad I didn't waste hours of my life routinely slaying Sacrifices or other similar monsters for less CP and wealth.

Just want to be clear--if you're saying that Sacrifices offer less combined CP and wealth than Adamantoises, then fine, because Adamantoises do offer a lot more CP than Sacrifices. But Sacrifices are decidedly superior to Adamantoises when it comes to wealth as long as you farm them at the right part of chapter 13.

[furbleburble]

As someone who has done treasure hunter twice (PS3 and Steam), I absolutely recommend never grinding before post-game. The only exception to this would be if you simply can't get past something, but, as tiornys said, "grinding is much less efficient than improving your strategies and tactics, starting with your team choice and paradigm deck composition."

As for Behemoth Kings, either ignore them or pre-emptive them where possible; nothing they have to offer justifies the effort required to kill them if you're unable to easily dispatch them. Though, if you're unable to kill them from a pre-emptive then I might actually recommend a little grinding, but player skill > stats (as is the case in most games).

Also, when it comes time to grind in post-game, don't bother grinding for CP if you're going for Treasure Hunter. You will max your characters long before getting that achievement. Grind for money and the CP will come in time. The CP you get will make the gil grind easier, but it's generally not worth it to grind CP.

If you (anyone) have gotten Treasure Hunter or don't care about it, then do all the grinding you want.

[Big_Snek]

Originally posted by furbleburble:

As someone who has done treasure hunter twice (PS3 and Steam), I absolutely recommend never grinding before post-game. The only exception to this would be if you simply can't get past something, but, as tiornys said, "grinding is much less efficient than improving your strategies and tactics, starting with your team choice and paradigm deck composition."

As for Behemoth Kings, either ignore them or pre-emptive them where possible; nothing they have to offer justifies the effort required to kill them if you're unable to easily dispatch them. Though, if you're unable to kill them from a pre-emptive then I might actually recommend a little grinding, but player skill > stats (as is the case in most games).

Also, when it comes time to grind in post-game, don't bother grinding for CP if you're going for Treasure Hunter. You will max your characters long before getting that achievement. Grind for money and the CP will come in time. The CP you get will make the gil grind easier, but it's generally not worth it to grind CP.

If you (anyone) have gotten Treasure Hunter or don't care about it, then do all the grinding you want.

Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it.