leveling question

I know the enemies levels are proportional to your party’s levels but do you think it would be easier still just to have your level very high?

Right now I’m up to the part where I am looking for the White SeeD. I just beat the ruby dragon with Kiros and Laguna in the flashback thing and here are my party’s levels.

Squall: 25
Zell: 19
Irvine: 16
Quistis: 20
Selphie: 16
Rinoa: 18

The battle with the Ruby dragon was sort of hard and I only really won by spamming GFs like Shiva and Alexander until he was dead. My physical attacks just seem pitiful and I think the only person with and HP above 1000 is Squall. Am I too underleveled for this part in the game?

Well, the thing about it is that unless you’ve really been hitting the card game hard, you may just not have enough good magic to be able to junction in order to soup up your characters. In many cases, drawing better magic from monsters means having higher levels. The only other option I can think of at this point is to obtain Tonberry if you can and play around with his ability to Level Up monsters– assuming you can survive fighting against them long enough, you could use it to raise monsters to a level where you could draw some decent magic from them. Also, what about refining items? Check around and see what refine abilities you have and what items you’re carrying that you can refine into useful magic for junctioning. There’s no point in carrying around a bunch of surplus items, particularly ones that don’t have any use in battle or otherwise, if you can refine them into magic that could be helping you.

That’s what I’m guessing. I could be wrong, but I’m thinking it’s more likely that what you’re experiencing isn’t so much a level problem as a junctions problem.

Trance Moogle your characters do seem at a rather low level considering how far you are into the game.

My characters were that level at the end of Disc 1, at the Deling City Parade.

Yeah, I’d say that’s true of me, too, in general. I’m guessing that Trance Moogle probably heard about how the leveling system works and so he’s avoided leveling his characters. And that’s fine to a point, but in order to make it through the game at levels like that, you need to have really solid junctioning going.

Just a couple of spells to stock, and you can have much, much better stats than those without levelling up at all, provided you have the ability to junction to those stats.

Tornado junctions really well to strength, and there are a couple of ways of getting it, but in either case, you need to have T Mag Rf (Quezacotl’s ability). If you have card mod, you can simply win 15 Abyss Worm cards, and you can mod them into windmills, which give you 20 Tornados apiece. If you don’t have Card Mod or don’t want to play cards that much, you can go to the desert around the D-District prison and fight until you encounter Abyss Worms, from which you can mug windmills. Either way, if you junction 100 Tornados to your strength stats, you will have a vastly improved physical attack.

The other really important stat is HP, and several things junction really well to it. The easiest to do, really, is get Curagas with L Mag Rf (Siren’s ability) by modding tents. You can buy those at any store, so all you need is a little money.

If you just improve those two stats, battles will get MUCH easier for you. If you want information on other stats and that sort of thing, I wrote a guide for junctioning that’s listed in the notable threads section of this forum.

Tornado, IMO is the most powerful, easiest magic to obtain.

It’s definitely pretty easy. I usually junction Meteor to Strength in the end and use Tornado on something else, though. But getting Meteors is time-consuming, unless you really know what you’re doing.

Also, if you draw magic from monsters, I really recommend you junction something good to your magic stat first to ensure you’ll draw 9 every time (even against tough enemies with high level magic!) Death works pretty well, and you can get that with L Mag Rf by modding Chef’s Knifes, which you can get by modding Tonberry/Tonberry King cards. Those are pretty easy to come by, and they give you 30 deaths apiece. The other good thing for magic is Triple, but that’s a little harder to get. I usually draw 100 of those from Odin with everybody, but if you’ve already done that sidequest, that won’t help you much.

Yeah. Cerberus is the only other monster I know of that carries Triple, but if Trance Moogle is looking for the white SeeD ship, then he’s already past that point.

Oh, there’s also the Ultima draw point in Shumi Village to keep in mind. Costs 5,000 gil to access, but it’s worth it to keep stopping by every so often because Ultima junctions great to just about anything and the draw point regenerates quickly.

Also, you should junction something strong to your Mag-J stat before you attempt to draw powerful magic, like Ultima.

Okay, so tornado will help with attack and raise magic to draw ultima. Got it!

Thanks!

Yea, also, Tornado junctions great with Str, and HP (It’s better than Regen and Curaga)

Quake is easy to get if you refine T-Rexaur cards into Dino bones. Each Dino Bone gets you 20 Quake I think. It’s good for strength.

Mesmerize blades can be used to get Regens. You can get them easily by fighting/mugging Mesmerizes near Shumi Village.

and raise magic to draw ultima.
Or to draw just about anything. Having a better Magic stat helps with drawing just about anything.

Yea, also, Tornado junctions great with Str, and HP (It’s better than Regen and Curaga)

True, but I recommend using Tornado on Str because Curaga is nearly as good on HP.

[QUOTE}Quake is easy to get if you refine T-Rexaur cards into Dino bones. Each Dino Bone gets you 20 Quake I think. It’s good for strength.

Actually, you only get one dino bone for every 2 T-Rexaur card. Armaddodo cards, however, mod into dino bones at 1-1.

Mesmerize blades can be used to get Regens. You can get them easily by fighting/mugging Mesmerizes near Shumi Village.

Yeah, forgot to mention this, but Regen junctions better to HP than Curaga. Also, have you fought Tonberry King? If not, draw Full-Life from him, for obvious reasons. That junctions better than everything else to HP.

Well, you can’t get Full-Life if you’re too low leveled. I wish I could have on my no-level game.

Not true with Tonberry King, I don’t think. I’m pretty sure bosses have the same magic regardless of your level.

Well, I’ll tell you that I played a no-level game to that point, and Tonberry King didn’t have Full-Life.

Also, if you play no-level, it is possible to get Tonberry King without having to fight Odin.

Also, if you play no-level, it is possible to get Tonberry King without having to fight Odin.

I thought it was always possible to get Tonberry King without having to fight Odin. You just have to make sure you beat him before going over the time limit.

Well, I’ve never tried it myself, but I would assume so. Does the clock reset if you leave and then come back in?

Yes, it does, and so do all of the triggers (like where the eyeball stone things are). It’s basically like you’re starting the whole thing over. Odin gets kind of pissed when you leave, though… "DISHONOURABLE WRETCH!"

ROTFL! It’s one of the few things I’ve never tried with the game before, though now I’m tempted to try it out, just to see that. That’s awesome.

Curaga or Full lifes=hp Juction
Tornado/quake=Str juntion
Regen/Protect= Vit Junction
Death/Flare= Mag Junction
Curaga/Regen/Reflect= Spirit juction
that what i have at my 12th lvl Squall (playing the solo squall no gridind chalenge)and im doing fine… but as you can see im a card maniac and i played tons of games to get many card and turn them into items(play the card Queen at balamb and get the diff rule to help you out farming cards)
Hope i provided some useful info
Edit; you can get some ultimas from Elnoyle card (10 cards for 1 energy crystals=10 ultimas) but i suggest you to keep em in order to get lionheart in disk 1

Lionheart at disk one is the most unnecessary thing in the world. What could you possibly fight that you would need to do that much damage to?

Lionheart at disk one is the most unnecessary thing in the world. What could you possibly fight that you would need to do that much damage to?

I suppose it would help if you were doing a No-Level Up playthrough. But from experience, I know that a lot of people who do that also do something like a No-Item, No-Escape, No-Limit Break, No-GF Summon, No-Refine Item, No-Encounter None/Half, and No-Weapon Upgrade playthrough.

Well pretty much what Olde said ( except No-encounter none and no-weapon upgrade )and its quite an achievment having lionheart on disk one plus im playing only with squall(other 2 members are dead)

In a no-level-up playthrough, you can easily bludgeon your way through the game with physical attacks if you get the right magic to junction. As a matter of fact, no-level-up playthroughs, though they make it time-consuming to learn GF abilities, are easier than regular ones if you know what you’re doing.

All I’m saying is that unless you’re forbidding yourself from junctioning magic or modding cards, you don’t need lionheart in the first disk.

As a matter of fact, no-level-up playthroughs, though they make it time-consuming to learn GF abilities, are easier than regular ones if you know what you’re doing.

Isn’t the only way to learn GF abilities in a no-level-up playthrough through boss fights and, eventually, Tonberry fights (ie those that only give 0 EXP), or am I forgetting something?

You’re forgetting about Card. You don’t gain EXP for enemies that you turn into cards, but you’ll still gain the AP. This is the method that the No Level Up FAQ/Walkthrough at GameFAQs recommends.

You’re forgetting about Card. You don’t gain EXP for enemies that you turn into cards, but you’ll still gain the AP. This is the method that the No Level Up FAQ/Walkthrough at GameFAQs recommends.

Indeed I did. Good call, Agent.

The other available option is cactuars, once you get there. They give very little exp and 20 AP.

But yeah, when you have jacked up stats and you’re facing enemies of the lowest possible level, this game is a joke.

You can card Cactuars by

Keeping Quistis in the yellow.
Equipping Initiative to her.
Then, at the start of the match, have her do her Bad Breath Limit Break.

They have an 80% chance of falling asleep. Then you micromissile them 1 by 1 (quickly) and card them.

You can card Cactuars by

Keeping Quistis in the yellow.
Equipping Initiative to her.
Then, at the start of the match, have her do her Bad Breath Limit Break.

They have an 80% chance of falling asleep. Then you micromissile them 1 by 1 (quickly) and card them.

Yeah thats what I did and all of my GF’s learned full abilities within about 3 hours.