As some may already know, there’s not a whole lot of point to raising your characters’ levels, since the enemies will just level up along with you, in which case, the only way to gain an edge on the competition is through exploiting GFs’ support abilities. But, before you can exploit said abilities, you must learn them!
The earliest place in the game is the shores of Balamb Island; that is, walk along the beach, and you’ll encounter Fastitochalon, usually two of them at a time, which will provide 3AP each, for a total of 6AP.; they’re red fish that swim in the sand; at first, they’ll just look like flames moving around on the ground, but hit them, and they’ll pop right up.
If you want to avoid raising levels, weaken the enemies first, then cast Quezacotl’s "Card" ability on them, and you won’t earn any EXP, only AP.
On the western continent, if you walk on the coasts there, you’ll encounter three Fastitochalon at one time, earning 9AP per battle.
The best place in the game, however, is at the southern end of Kashkabald Desert, the eastern end of the Centra continent, bordering Cactuar Island. That southern end of the Kashkabald Desert is actually classified as Cactuar Island, and you’ll encounter Cactaurs, who provide 20AP each, and if you get a group of 2, 3, or 4, you can earn up to 80AP per battle!
The problems with Cactaurs are, that they will usually run away immediately, and even if you can hit them, they have high evasion. In which case, you’re going to need status junctions like "Spd-J," "Hit-J," and the "Haste" and "Pre-emptive" support abilities would be helpful, too. Some GFs who have abilities like these are Pandemona and Cerberus; Diablos only offers "Hit-J," but that’s still better than nothing.
Until you can get those abilities or GFs, you can tough it out, and maybe hit one Cactaur every battle or so, but one way or another, you’ll still gather AP faster than hunting Fastitochalon, or any other enemies in the game beside boss enemies.
(ALso, try junctioning 100 water spells to your other characters. If they do happen to hit a catuar, they’ll be more likely to kill it in one hit.)
Strange Vision is Selphie’s weapon name, if I’m not mistaken.
And yeah, I have never seen The End as well. Even now, I’m gathering 100 Curse Spikes for Quistis, I have Selphie in critical condition for almost all battles now, and nothing.
Does it have to do something with luck?
edit: whoops yea i meant of the two that end the battle.
And last time I played I saw The End three times in the whole game, only used it once though, haha the funniest thing is the very first time I played the game, I got The End (for the first time) at Gerogero of all places, and didn’t have the slightest understanding of what it did.
If one was to go Cactuar Hunting, (assuming you have Selphie’s Strange Vision), then she and Squall should be in the party. Squall will always have 255% accuracy so there’s no worry. As for the third character, I’d bring Irvine along. He has higher Luck than the others.
The good thing about getting AP from Grendels and Adamantoises is that they both have high HP amounts, making it easier to Card them without much risk of accidentally killing them.