Best characters and place for pre-Lavos first time fight level up?

[uismeno]

Trying to beat Lavos on non-newgame+. So far have been leveling up in the BC caves, getting about 500 exp per screen running a sort of short gauntlet of two encounters.

Are there better places I could be leveling? Party's at about level 40.

Also, currently with Chrono, Ayla,and Marley. Is there a better group I could be using?

[Storm Reaver]

Magus Castle has good spot for 12 TP and enemies drop Mid-Ethers too.
Great spot to unlock your Level 2 spells for Chrono, Lucca and Marle.

Use the auto-battle speed up function to make things quicker.

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The Black Omen has great TP farming spots with orb enemies.
Just re-enter the area over and over to unlock all your spells.

[Storm Reaver]

For party choice, depends on what you want.

Ayla is basically required for stealing items.
But she's not required to level up your party.

Crono, Lucca and Magus are ALL great Nukers.
Equip them with Gold Studs and nuke everything.

Frog and Robo are great for heal-all abilities.
This helps keep party alive easier than Marle.

For EXP use the Geo Dome Conveyor Belt.

[DBZ_KAKAROT]

I'm currently using This method. I've already blew through the Conveyor belt method mentioned above, but the Black Omen method might be faster.

[Storm Reaver]

Black Omen is a great spot for EXP.

Lucca and Marle are good against Fangbeasts because they absorb both lightning and shadow magic, but Metal Mutants have lower HP and don't absorb anything.

[FatalFrosty]

Just go through everrything the story has to offer and you'll win easy. You're not supposed to need to grind at any point for anything

[psychotron666]

Originally posted by FatalFrosty:

Just go through everrything the story has to offer and you'll win easy. You're not supposed to need to grind at any point for anything

This.

Just go do all the side quests at the end and get everyone's legendary weapon. By the time you're done that you can wipe out lavos easily.

If you really want to grind, go to black omen in the present, clear it out. Then go to dark ages, clear it out. And do that in every timeline that the black omen is in, you get tons of crazy good loot too, especially if you're charming from the bosses