Aftergame LVL Grinding

One of the ways to farm EXP & GOLD for an easier way to defeat the Extra Boss / complete the Boss Rush Mode.
Contains some location SPOILERS!

§ The Maximum Level

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Don't know why you'll need this, because even the aftergame Boss Rush Mode can be beaten without problems at level 40+, but if you VERY like this game (like me), you can grind to the max level. Here are 99 LVL stats without any gems:



The 99th LVL is the final and it makes no sense to gain EXP further (the counter breaks, despite the set NEXT limit for the 100th level).

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§ How and where to Grind / Farm?

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1. Find the Lost Holy Sword in «Stage 5: Royal Chambers», breaking the left wall in the first Save Room on location. This ability are incredibly useful and effective for quickly killing enemies on the screen (good for long grinding as it allows you to worry less about some enemies).

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2. Complete the entire aftergame location all the way to the Save Room in front of the Extra Final Boss (99% of the map, this will be the stopping place). There is a vending machine with save point, and before that was a hellish corridor with a lot of the most difficult enemies in the game.

By this moment, you most likely have a level close to the 30th and you can die in this corridor quite quickly if you don't be careful and don't use all the abilities gained before that moment. If you have any difficulties, try to find all the hidden objects on the map (use the awesome guides from the other guys).

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3. You just have to go through this corridor over and over again, killing everything alive and collecting gems. After level 50, it'll be virtually impossible to die in there, because at this point you can easily buy everything from the Store (if you don't care about gems anymore, you can equip Thousand Knives and just run out into this corridor from the vending machine side, killing a couple of ground enemies, and then go back).

➤ Each raid on the full corridor will bring you gems of an approximate value of ~ 3.000 GOLD, unless of course you try to collect them. One run will also bring you 200 EXP from all enemies.

【 ! 】 Don't forget to save game after each raid! (Don't know if the bug where Sakuya falls through the floor in the pool has been fixed).

If you don't need more expendable items, you can farm GOLD for an EXP item that cost 100.000 (it brings 250 experience) to save yourself a little time, but levels until the 60th grind pretty quickly. After that, feel free to sell gems every 5-10 levels, because the stats increase from them is insignificant (no matter what people say, you are already unkillable for any bosses, of course, if you play and don’t stand still).

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§ Conclusion

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This isn't so difficult, but you are unlikely to need the last 99th level. Simply, if you're experiencing difficulty on the aftergame Final Boss or can't complete the Boss Rush Mode, you can farm a dozen of levels in the shortest possible time and it'll become muсh easier!

❥ Hope you found this guide useful! ~

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[MainTronPower]

I had that softlock happen to me a few weeks ago so it still exists, but I was able to get out of it. I don't remember the exact details of what I did but it was something along the lines of spamming double jump with time stopped and getting hit by one of the enemies to have the knockback push me out of the floor. I think I also was spamming knives downwards and basically just trying to fill the area with as many knives as possible to try and clip up through the floor.

[Rinnosuke Morichika]

The warning to this area from two comments down still applies after the latest patch.
Instead of soft-locking you, it kills you while you juggle between the floor of it and the ceiling of the room below.

The situation, however, should never happen if you're careful with the time stops.

[Pickleton]

I actually prefer to just do the room just to the left of the warp point right before that corridor.
If you run in, jump, and use thousand knives, you can kill 3 (sometimes 4) enemies with that one cast. Then you just run left far enough to pick up the jewels, run to the left and repeat.
If your positioning is good, the cat on the right will get close enough to graze you, which will keep you constantly at full MP.

Also, I see written a lot that the stats given by gems is negligible, but in the time it takes to get to a high level, you'll definitely see a difference. Not just in your power, but you'll actually see your HP/MP noticeably tick upwards. By the time I hit lvl70, pretty much everything did only 1hp damage to me, which would be instantly healed due to the graze generated immediately before they hit.

[MkLXIV]

Also, a fair warning about this area, not sure if this has ever been mentioned in another guide: save very frequently, there's a bug that can cause you to clip through the floor. There's pools of water at the bottom of the room, and if you stop time with enough momentum going into the corner of those pools, you'll clip into one of the rooms below you depending on where you are in the room and you'll be stuck in the floor (a soft lock). If there's a way out I don't know about, it could be really useful- one of the rooms below is a Shrine Room!

[MkLXIV]

This is a rather old guide by now, but I think it's noteworthy to mention that Chainsaws are also particularly useful in this area as most enemies there are aerial, they also have really good DPS if you spam them compared to the Lost Holy Sword- MP shouldn't be too much of a concern with lots of relevant gems. Also noteworthy is that if you plan to do Boss Rush, you may want to hold off on selling gems and just grind for levels, with sufficient gems and levels your MP recovery is ridiculous and recovery items won't be quite as useful, especially considering you can just get MP back with Red Graze at that point and gems help with that too.

[❥ ExtraCutieLover]

I sold gems only for small time savings. There are practically no problems with MP after the 50th level, but thanks for the useful information!

[Pickleton]

If you can hit lvl99 without selling any gems (after buying everything), you'll have a noticeable stat boost. Enough so that I would argue you're nerfing yourself if you sell them.

1000 ruby = 1 DEF
1000 sapphire = 1 ATK
500 diamond = 1 ATK, 1 DEF

My favorite spot to farm/grind is actually at the warp room in the post-game area.
If you go one room to the left from there and dash jump into Thousand Knives, you'll clear the 3 enemies on the ground, the one on the left and possibly the ghost flame that appears above her. Dash to the left to pick up the gems and some of the knives stuck in the left wall, exit to the right and repeat. Once you have enough of the gems to increase your MP regeneration, you wont even need to pick up the knives, as the passive regen plus the occasional graze from the rightmost cat will keep you topped off.