AP farm question

[MechaTC]

It might be just me, but it seems every single patrol on the entire map gives me roughtly the same amount of AP, regardless of enemy quantity and level. Something like 100 AP plus/minus ten. The only difference is if I'm fighting lower level enemies I can dispatch them in two or three turns and get something like 90 AP. While fighting higher level enemies is actually a threat to my team, takes more time and gives me very little additional AP. I don't see any reason to leave first patrol location because of that reason

My main six non-story characters are a mess. First I've made them max sorcerers with ranger's and fellblade's passives. Now they are master assassing and peddlers and warmages. The gyst of it I'm still looking for a working team composition, hence why they are becoming ultimate warriors born by grind D:

So... I'm wondering. If there's anyone around who prefer more grindy playstyle, what's the most effective way to farm AP? I look at my main six and think "Ah, screw it! They are already masters of many jobs. At this point I might just grind all the jobs"...

[Conan The Librarian]

“Regardless of level” is not entirely true however. Note that AP gains are reduced if your crew vastly outlevels the enemies you are facing. In terms of “getting the most AP”, story missions are actually the way to do that since they award much more than patrols. That being said, theoretically if you desire to grind, trying to find Zotzit’s on random patrols will be a good way as killing those give a nice AP bonus.

[MechaTC]

Originally posted by Conan The Librarian:

“Regardless of level” is not entirely true however. Note that AP gains are reduced if your crew vastly outlevels the enemies you are facing. In terms of “getting the most AP”, story missions are actually the way to do that since they award much more than patrols. That being said, theoretically if you desire to grind, trying to find Zotzit’s on random patrols will be a good way as killing those give a nice AP bonus.

"Regardless of level"... Yeah, it's the fact that I get less AP if my team outlevels my enemies. That's why at my first (well, current...) playthrough I decided to reset my WHOLE ROSTER to level one, simply because every encounter on the map gave me like 80 AP

It didn't work, needless to say :D While yes, now I can get 100 AP, at the same time I need more time to clear the patrol. So if we're talking AP/sec efficiency... I actually consider resetting my whole team a mistake(

Ironically enough I discovered Zotzits only after the grand reset. Now my whole roster is level 1 with only six character are level five or so. They are nasty buggers to deal with, but I gonna give it a shot anyway. It might turn out to not be worth it, but there's only one way to find out. Thanks!

Oh, on a side note... One reason I tried not to use story encounters to farm AP is the fact the whole world advances as well. Like... Is it just me or some patrol spots shift their level caps? I'm pretty sure first location had level 1 minimum and now its level 2 minimum o.O

[Conan The Librarian]

The patrol levels are pre-set and don’t shift. The only thing which would effect that would be the difficulty settings for “level scaling”. Not sure if you changed that or not.

Edit—Apparently story progression changes some of the parameters, my bad; I don’t tend to go back to old maps and grind and didn’t notice haha.

[MechaTC]

Originally posted by Conan The Librarian:

The patrol levels are pre-set and don’t shift. The only thing which would effect that would be the difficulty settings for “level scaling”. Not sure if you changed that or not.

I see... Well, gonna hunt some bugs then. This game has an insane amount of character building stuff. That's exactly why I decided to play more grindy style (even more than usual...). Thanks a lot :D

[Mechalibur]

Actually I believe the level range of patrols does change based on what part of the story you're on.

If you're at the end of the game, the levels won't change, but if you're still partway through the game, some of the patrol ranges might change as you progress through the story.

[MechaTC]

Originally posted by Mechalibur:

Actually I believe the level range of patrols does change based on what part of the story you're on.

If you're at the end of the game, the levels won't change, but if you're still partway through the game, some of the patrol ranges might change as you progress through the story.

A-ha! So I'm not crazy after all! It DOES shift regardless of difficulty settings!

Here's my save file

https://pp.userapi.com/c855016/v855016497/363f7/hJ6GYJRFZtc.jpg

https://pp.userapi.com/c855016/v855016497/36401/naDnh4e2QBU.jpg

And here's new game, right after first REAL story battle

https://pp.userapi.com/c855016/v855016762/3573b/eDSt-Z6I4XA.jpg

https://pp.userapi.com/c855016/v855016762/357c2/qGD2hAAYaCY.jpg

Thanks for clarifying)

[6 Eyes Studio]

Patrol levels are affected by "story progression" indeed! Story progression points are usually "right after a temple" for the most part. Those will change the min/max of most patrols.

As for the AP amount: it's based on the difference in levels between the enemies and your team, so the first few zones should eventually give you about 40% of the AP a regular map would yield, if your levels are quite a bit higher. It could need further tuning though, for sure. We'll keep an eye on this :)

Thanks!

[Rynielz]

Before Zotzit random encounters were added to the game, my favourite spot for farmig AP was the Phougamouth Bogs patrol with 4 out of 6 units having Assassin as secondary class. Using Sabotage on the 3/4 enemies without the ability to swim will let you win quite fast as you can imagine.
Plus I believe that's the only Patrol with a chance of spawning 2 Guests (more AP if they survive), for a total of 150-170AP if I recall.
Anyways Zotzit was a great add, way more rewarding then any farm probably :D

[Mechalibur]

Originally posted by Ryniel:

Plus I believe that's the only Patrol with a chance of spawning 2 Guests (more AP if they survive), for a total of 150-170AP if I recall.

There's actually a patrol with 3 guests. It's Gelleigh, but I believe only after a certain point in the story

[Rynielz]

Originally posted by Mechalibur:

Originally posted by Ryniel:

Plus I believe that's the only Patrol with a chance of spawning 2 Guests (more AP if they survive), for a total of 150-170AP if I recall.

There's actually a patrol with 3 guests. It's Gelleigh, but I believe only after a certain point in the story

Oh right, forgot about that. It's a fun one, way harder battle though, those 3 Guests tend to kamikaze right away :-/

[Tuidjy]

For extra quick AP farming, I recommend the 'bad ending' final fight.

Of course, that's only good for perfecting your team, and replaying maps with higher difficulty and fewer characters in you party.

[OnlyOffensive]

yea it does seem that on very hard, doing scaled patrols nets you ~100 AP on ~20 level, fights are crazy and long. And for level 1-11 patrol map you get like 80 AP and win it without much effort.

Also its impossible to bring alot of "leechers" pn scaled maps, so yeah, to polish your team it seems best to grind lower levels.

[twpe]

It definitely needs further tuning (speaking from the perspective of someone who has only played on very hard). In terms of AP gained per minute, nothing beats just rofl stomping the lowest level patrol you can fight in a matter of a couple turns versus fighting a story mission that might take 20+ minutes.

[OnlyOffensive]

yeah... also farming AP on lower level maps means low expirience, which means you wont get levels in classes that dont fit your stats. SO its even more win.

[Tuidjy]

If you want to farm the crossroads, you better do it with a character built for that purpose, and reset to level 1. Yes, the benched characters will get only 50% experience, but you literally clear the level in one character turn.