End Game A-EXP and MAG Farming Guide

Comprehensive guide to farming in the endgame! Lategame spoilers abound!

Foreword

Hello and welcome to endgame farming!

You've come looking for information and help, and I'm happy to be as helpful as I can be.

First and foremost, we're here to make A-EXP and MAG. And we're here to make it Efficiently. To be efficient, We need to satisfy 3 criteria.

- Find a place that earns a great deal of A-EXP.
- Find a place that earns a great deal of MAG.
- Remains effective as character level increases.

Normally, You can only really get 2 out of the 3 in a single zone. So to solve this problem, we are going to have to make our own.

Setup

To do this, there are a few conditions that need to be met. As well as some items we really want to have before we start. Below is a quick reference for the setup and summarized reasoning. I'll go over how to get these as well as expand on the reasoning in their respective sections.

REQUIRED

• Month 9 Day 26
  This is the first day that we can unlock the Disgraced Ruins dungeon.
  
  
• Protagonist Character Level 68
  We need to be able to kill lv 65 enemies without squad combat for the A-EXP farm.
  
  
• Merchant Follower Rank 10
  We need both Merchant and Tycoon for this.
  
  
• Knight Follower Rank 10
  We need Revitalize 3 from the Paladin Archetype for the MAG farm.
  
  
• Masked Dancer Follower Rank 10
  We need both Masked Revelry and Hero's Hymn bonus for the MAG farm.
  
  
• Fortune God Abacus -OR- Fortune Abacus
  We need a monstrously strong abacus to make the MAG farm consistent.

RECOMMENDED

• Faker Follower Rank 1
  This drastically speeds up the A-EXP farm.
  
  
• Gamber's Manual
  Helps with making the MAG farm consistent, but not required.
  
  
• HP Regen equipment
  Reduces amount of time spent healing, increasing efficiency.
  
  
• equipment that resists charm
  Stops bad luck from making fights drag out, increasing efficiency.
  
  
• equipment that grants Sukukaja effect (AGI up)
  Pairs with Shield Blessing for the MAG farm, but not strictly necessary.

Archetype EXP

First, we need to unlock the Disgraced Ruins dungeon. This is the location for the bounty "The Apostles of the Apocalypse". This bounty becomes available in the final stretch of the game, starting at Month 9 Day 26.

But we're not going there for a bounty, we're going there to farm. So don't go to farm until the Protagonist has hit Character level 68, otherwise we can't quick kill the monsters we need to.

Once you're there, make your way to the final level of the dungeon. where the Cat and two Treasure Mimics hang out.



Once you get there, equip the Faker archetype to the Protagonist and everyone else to a mastered archetype. (Merchants preferred to make the MAG farm swap faster.)

We use Faker because it's both ranged and has a small AoE effect on it's attacks at the target's location. This let's us attack the mimics from outside their aggro range, giving us a sneak attack on both mimics. Which is the fastest way to them take out.

The only skill the Faker should have inherited is Lucky Find, and the rest of the party should have it too if they're not on Merchant. (Merchant has it naturally.)

Lucky Find is helpful because it will boost the drop rates of it's common item. We don't actually care about the Rare item, so you can leave the Luckier Find skill alone.

All that's left is to kill both mimics. When they die, you'll get battle spoils which include A-EXP and 0-2 Jewelled Roots, an A-EXP item. Additionally, when a mastered Archetype accumulates 1000 A-EXP. You'll receive a Leaf of Light. Another A-EXP item. I'll put a chart below for useful values and breakpoints.

After both mimics die, run to the Cat and head to the Akademeia. Leave immediately, and both mimics should respawn. Rinse and repeat until either satisfied or wanting to switch to MAG farm.

A-EXP conversion and breakpoints

Heroe's Leaf of Light = 1000 A-EXP
Heroe's Jewelled Root = 3000 A-EXP

1 Root = 3 Leafs
4 Root + 525 A-EXP = MASTERED Beginner Archetype
10 Root = MASTERED Adept Archetype
14 Root + 293 A-EXP = MASTERED Elite Archetype

MAG

Disgraced Ruins is a natural A-EXP farm location thanks to the mimics. We have to do some work to make it useful for MAG as well.

Goal of the setup:
Consistently Flawless the Mimic in squad combat after using Debt collection several times.

SETUP

We need either the Fortune God Abacus or the Fortune Abacus for the consistently part. Of the two, the easier to get is the Fortune God Abacus. Which can be acquired by stealing it from a Candidate Jin. Who is fought in the 8th trust event of the Gunner Archetype. The Fortune Abacus will be acquired when the Protagonist reaches 90% Archetype Master. Which is gained by researching new archetypes.

Abacus Differences
A Tycoon using the Fortune God Abacus does amazing, consistent damage. At the price of each Gold Rush costing 7,500 money. meaning each Collection Fight will cost you 15,000 money. This is somewhat mitigated by the A-EXP farm and killing one mimic in the overworld before starting squad combat with the other. In contrast, The Fortune Abacus is more difficult to make work, requiring more resources skills and equipment to move it to the comfortable two-shot range. In exchange, the Fortune Abacus reduces the cost of Gold Rush to zero. making it the more sustainable option.

You might want to get the Gambler's Manual accessory. It increases the damage of Critical Hits and can help with making the Flawless part more consistent. It can be acquired as a Colosseum reward by beating the last Gold Rank fight.

Additionally, you'll want to bring a combination of items that grant HP Regeneration, charm resistance, and auto-Sukukaja to complete setup.

Finally, you will want the following skills available on 3 characters:

• Revitalization 3 (Paladin Rank 20)
  
• Masked Revelry (Masked Dancer Rank 11)
  
• Shield Blessing (Wizard Rank 11)

Set those 3 characters to the Merchant Class, have them inherit the above skills, and use the last slot on a skill that grants HP Regeneration, Charm resistance, or auto-Sukukaja. Their equipment should cover everything you didn't select above.
(example: Gave auto-Sukukaja skill, so equipment needs to provide HP Regeneration and Charm Resistance.)


Your final party member should be your prefered physical attacker. Set them to Tycoon, and give them the Abacus and as much damage, crit chance, and hit chance as you can. Specifically, you're aiming for a combination that let's you reliably two-shot one of the lv 65 mimics.


With all that done, start squad combat with the mimics.

COMBAT: COLLECTION

In combat, your goal is to fire off as many Debt Collections as possible while achieving a Flawless Victory. Have your 3 Merchants use Debt collection, and your Tycoon Gold Rush. Optimal speed has your Tycoon acting as the last character.

Now, You don't need to kill the mimic in the first round. The mimic always casts Heat Riser first and skips the rest of his turns thanks to Gold Rush. After that though, you're relying on the attack roulette and dodge luck to achieve a flawless. So make sure you kill in the second round. Have some of the Merchants fire off Gold Attack if necessary.

If all goes well, and you're Tycoon can reliably two-shot the Mimic, You'll have a flawless victory after using debt collection 6-7 times.

The reason we care so much about the Flawless victory is that the bonus also applies to however much we got from our Debt Collection.


For reference, Debt collection in this instance would grab about 1800 MAG. The difference above is 5769 MAG.
5769 / 1800 = 3.205
That is an extra 3 casts of debt collection for free.

COMBAT: RECHARGE

Debt collection costs 100 MP per cast and is generally unsustainable. Let's fix that.

We're aiming for each Merchant to use Debt collection twice. that's 200 MP per Collection Fight.

We've equiped our merchants with Revitalize 3, Shield Blessing, and Masked Revelry. These sources of MP generation stack.


So to start: We generate 24 MP per turn on the Merchants.

However, to maximize this MP regen, we'll need to survive a turn of the mimic attacking us. This is where the Charm resistance and HP regeneration come in. If everyone has charm resistance, the mimic's beguiling breath attack becomes a non issue. If our HP regeneration over 8 turns outpaces the Mimics damage output, we don't need to waste time and MP healing. For that reason, keep the merchants in the back row. Tycoon can stay in Front row for attacking.

Now, in a Recharge Fight we really want the Tycoon to act last because he will naturally fall on the last half turn. Maximizing the amount of MP we regen. Do the following:

• ROUND 1: Have all merchants pass, Have the Tycoon pass then use Gold Rush once.
  
• ROUND 2: Have everyone pass. At some point, move the Tycoon to the back row. The last two half turns can be used to guard if desired.
  
• ROUND 3: Have all merchants pass, Have the Tycoon pass then use Gold Rush to kill.

Why end at round 3? Auto-Sukukaja falls off at start of round 4 and deactivates the Shield Blessing skill. Which accounts for the majority of our MP regen.

Now for the math, and why we did this.
24 MP regen per turn
3 rounds x 2 turns = 6 turns of regen.
6 x 24 = 148 MP from Recharge fight.

Let's add in the regen we get from the Collection Fight.
2 rounds x 1 turn = 2 turns of regen
(2 x 24) + 148 = 196 MP per Collection-Recharge Cycle.

Now let's add in post-fight MP regen from Hero's Hymn.
I measured ~17 MP regen per fight on Eupha.
We complete 2 fights as part of this cycle.
(17 x 2) + 196 = 230 MP.
Remember, we're aiming to use 200 MP per cycle.

This shows that not only will we have enough MP to sustain 2 Debt Collections per merchant per cycle, but they'll also slowly gain XP. Allowing for back to back Collection Fights occasionally.

So go until you're satisfied with your mag, or until you want to swap to the A-EXP farm.

GALLICA

Gallica will occasionally grant 2 extra half turns.

During a Recharge Fight this comes out to a bit of extra MP.

During a Collection Fight, if the Tycoon has the Debt Collection skill inherited. This is an excellent time to dump the extra MP they've been regenerating from Hero's Hymn. The Tycoon is still responsible for getting that flawless, however. So be aware of your turn order and use Pass Turn to make adjustments where needed.

Closing

I hope this proved helpful, and that you all will enjoy the final month this game throws at you. Good luck with the Trials, and see you later!

[yeehaw]

i have a minor correction, in the setup - required section you say you need the follow ranks to be 10 when the max rank is 8 (persona brain took over)

[Frost]

This is what I used to unlock my party's master archetypes but when I was ready to grind out all of the protagonists to max I used the lichs in the dungeon that becomes available in the last month. Wonder how they compare?

[YetAnotherGuy]

So yeah, it does seem like Ninja's field skill has a tangible benefit over the speed of Faker's cycles. Furthermore, if you use a thief lineage class, I did find you can spam stunning the mimics in the over world and continue getting their drops in the likely case that you're under leveled upon starting this farm. That being said, RNG is a HUGE proponent of the drops, so I could very well be wrong. However, since I want to do other things in my life, and with the data looking mostly precise as is...this is good enough for me.
This was fun, and I hope this is helpful to anybody who is also grinding archetype levels! Best of luck, gamers - and may your fantasy live on...
And big thanks to Nook for the guide, it was really helpful!

[YetAnotherGuy]

I did some testing, figured it'd make grinding out my party's archetype mastery more fun.
In this testing, I conducted four 5 minute trials for Ninja and Faker respectively, recording the amount of jeweled roots collected in each 5 minute trial. In the first two trials of each, I used equipment that did not boost my luck, and vice versa for Trials 3 and 4 by equipping the Narcissus Brooch and Fortune's Grasp on my MC. All other gear was kept the same to ensure precision. Also, all party members and MC had Lucky Find and Luckier Find equipped/inherited.
Here are the results:

Ninja
Trial 1: 26
Trial 2: 24
Trial *3: 27
Trial *4: 26
Average 25.75/trial or 5.15 JR per minute

Faker
Trial 1: 18
Trial 2: 17
Trial *3: 16
Trial *4: 14
Average: 16.25/trial or 3.25 JR per minute

*indicates the use of luck boosting equipment like Narcissus Brooch, Fortune's Grasp

[Nook]

I didn't test pickpocket. Lucky find ended up being consistent enough that I was just looking to increase the speed of the loop. And Faker is an order of magitude faster that every other class at killing the mimics.

[YetAnotherGuy]

I've already completed farming for A-EXP for the most part myself (100% on protag, unlocked final archetypes on all party members with 99 jeweled roots. I was just curious if using faker is better than running ninja for the support skill (extra drops)?