How much grinding will I need to do?

[Frugl]

So I'm currently playing through XII, and this being my first Final Fantasy ever. I am wondering how much grinding I'll have to do once I get to Gran Pulse.

I am greatly enjoying the story and the character development, and as such would like to get on with the story as fast as possible. So how much grinding will i have to do? I don't want the rest of the game to be a cakewalk, but I don't want it to be fustrating either.

Thanks .

[talgaby]

If you want to do all the side missions, then about the same amount of time as the whole game. If not, then none, you can finish the whole game with zero grinding.

[SenMithrarin85]

In this game grinding is mostly pointless, because your stats are capped by each chapter. So all you would do is build up CP you cannot use.

There is only one time when its useful to grind. Just before fighting the final boss in chapter 13, there are several "sub boss" enemies that respawn and give out a lot of CP. This cannot be done once the final boss has been defeated.

A lot of players (myself included) also obtain the growth egg (which doubles CP) in chapter 11 to cut this grinding time in half. You would however need a lot of advanced planning in order to beat the enemy that drops it so early.

[Ceriss]

My advice is to NOT get all your classes to level 4 like I did, that will make everything supremely easy.

Maybe get your characters to about levels 3 and a half for a moderate difficulty.

It shouldn't take that long, a few hours at the behemoth and wolf enemies at the entrance Mah'habara will get you the cp needed.

Just don't get to level 4, I utterly decimated the boss and encounters afterward due to it.

Stats capped or not... there's a huge boost to all stats at level 4. I pretty much doubled my stats from level 3 after arriving on Pulse and getting level 4. Was at 300-400 ended up in 800+

[CyperLoop]

if you want to kill everything in your path without problem u need full development asap you available, or u go and try the biggest beast when u arrive at gran pulse. you will feel it !!

[Frugl]

Originally posted by Soap:

if you want to kill everything in your path without problem u need full development asap you available, or u go and try the biggest beast when u arrive at gran pulse. you will feel it !!

So just do a few missions, and i'll be fine?
I don't care much for the side quests.

[talgaby]

Then you can skip all of them, except the ones in the tower, which are required for progression. The game can be beat with very minimal CP, as speedrunners proved it. The side quests are there to add in some open-world…ness, and of course the rare accessories like ribbons and genji gloves. (Sprint shoes you can get in normal game… or, well, at least one or two I think.)

[Frugl]

Originally posted by talgaby:

Then you can skip all of them, except the ones in the tower, which are required for progression. The game can be beat with very minimal CP, as speedrunners proved it. The side quests are there to add in some open-world…ness, and of course the rare accessories like ribbons and genji gloves. (Sprint shoes you can get in normal game… or, well, at least one or two I think.)

Awesome, thanks! :)
I asume i get the option to go back later if i mess up?

[talgaby]

You can go back to Pulse at the start of chapter 13 and after beating the game and loading the save created there. The latter will unlock the last Stage in the crystarium and lets you revisit chapter 11 and 13.

[Lynx]

I personally had to spend about an hour or two grinding in order to beat the game, so it really varies. If you get stuck on a boss, grind for a level or two and try again, that's my general advice.

[tiornys]

If you have a good grasp of the game's strategy, you don't need to do any grinding whatsoever unless you want the Treasure Hunter trophy, Master Seal trophy, or have similar reasons for wanting to develop lots of equipment and/or fill out the Crystarium.

[Avatar_Y™ (っ◕‿◕)っ]

How many hours you put into the game, x2 or x3 hours that took for grinding.
You don't need to grind anything for Story, just finish the game normally then you can start grinding for ultimate weapon and fight harder enemies or Ceith mission.

[Frugl]

Just another quick question. Will I have to farm any specific items or level my weapons to a specific level?

[Maechen]

Originally posted by Frugl1:

Just another quick question. Will I have to farm any specific items or level my weapons to a specific level?

For the story mode? No. For the treasure hunter achievment? Yes. You need every weapon and accessory in the game.

[CyperLoop]

Originally posted by Frugl1:

Just another quick question. Will I have to farm any specific items or level my weapons to a specific level?

you want upgrade anything u need material, either get from monsters/ buy from shop that require lot of gil in game. u cant get gil from normal matches but u can sell premium items but that mean u need to farm the specific premium item to sell in order to get gil. so farm is needed for upgrades of anything. or u have the god of luck with you without farm and u gets rare drops

[talgaby]

If you fight all encounters exactly once, as the devs intended, then you'll get about enough components and gil to upgrade 2-3 weapons to mid/max Tier 2, plus a bunch of additional accessories to some decent levels. If you are lucky with the RNG then you may have 3 Tier 2 ⋆ level weapons for your main party and 8-10 ⋆ level accessories to help you. If you want to. In the main game your crystarium is more important than your equipment, to be honest, most of your stats will come from there. Although if you plan on using Fang or Vanille, their SAB enhancement weapons on Tier 2 can tip the scale of many battles, IMO.