General Leveling Guide

Greetings to all fellow players who come here who wish to do some grinding but doesn't know where to start. Before we begin, I would like to inform you that this guide will be incorporating Main Quest and grinding together. The grinding section will be much more effective if you already unlocked tier 4 skills, so this guide will be much more useful if you are now making your extra character . I hope that my guide will be useful to anyone, even if just a little.

• To all newbies, I would like to recommend doing main quest until you reach level 150 as soon as possible to unlock tier 4 skills (170 for dual wield). You can start grinding once you accomplish that.
• Once you reach level 150, I recommend that newbies should also start improving their own equipment, this is because the enemies will only get tougher so if you are a dps it's mandatory that you improve your items now to not suffer later on. You can actually settle with no slot or 1S equipment.
• Everyone gets four character slots for free, so I recommend doing the main quest alone to reach tier 4 skills on your first character to reach level 150 or even up to 180, then use this guide to quickly level up your next characters. You can then decide whether you want to continue or delete your very first character. The first character newbies created is the toughest one to level up, simply because they have no early access to strong skills that will allow them to mix main quest and grinding without wasting too much time.
• If there's an event like Hamani or Summer event where you can farm easy mana, I strongly suggest you farm during those days. You can use them yourself (if you have custom smith), sell it to other players after the event (since the prices starts to go up once again), or you can provide the materials to a guild mate or friend willing to give you a service for DTE equipment. New event recipes that have element and dte are cheap yet effective alternatives. Don't underestimate these free items.

This guide can be tedious to those who despise running around. The existence of Teleport Tickets, however, relieves the problem of this guide. You can also do this during quest campaign events because these kind of events provide teleport to specific areas of main quests free of charge.


Let's begin.

From level 1 to 150

• Without grinding anything and just doing main quest, you can reach level 115 by the time you defeat Venena Coenubia. The reason we stop after Venena Coenubia is to unlock this boss for grinding early on. We will also save the remaining EXP provided by the main quest to skip the hardest parts of the grind.

For non-MQ users (who picked latest progress when making a new character), here's a list for you before level 115.

• Shell Mask up to Lv36-37 (Nisel Mountain). This also allows you to unlock the three (3) daily emblems to prepare for the grind. It's best if you could use AOE skills. You could also use Bitter Nut and Nisel Wood for side quest to gain extra EXP.

• Afterward, grind a few levels at Farfalla (40). If you use magic, you get less evade.
• Teleport straight to Ancient Empress Tomb A1 afterwards and grind at Bone Dragonewt (45).
• Do the side quest "Unforgettable Taste" and "Timber Shortage" to dump your Bitter Nut and Nisel Wood from earlier.
• If you have the money, do the side quest Pride of Rich to skip some levels.
• Minotaur NM (52) up until Lv57. Go to Flare Volg (60) immediately afterward until 64. Then Masked Warrior normal mode (64).
• Grind Masked Warrior (normal, hard, and nightmare) until level 95.
• Teleport to Einklang and go to Polde Ice Valley to grind Don Yeti (103) until 112. Alternatively, you could go back to Masked Warrior Ultimate (107) when you reached 104 and grind there until 114.

Starting here, the MQ and non-MQ players can do the same thing:

• At level 115, you can now move to Cerberus NM (117), you can also start this fight on your own since the level requirement of party leader is only 114. You can find newbies or pet exp grinders in this area, so going full solo is your last option. You can grind here until level 126.

• Do Lapin the Necromancer (124) until anywhere between 130 to 134. Black Knight of Delusion (128) is an alternative but is quite far from Cerberus map and is a bit tougher as well. Scrader Ultimate (125) is another option. If you intend to go full solo on Cerberus (provided that you are strong enough for fast kill), you need to be at least 134 to start Cerberus Ultimate.

• At level 134 to 146, you can move to Cerberus Ultimate(137). Alternatively, you can fight Salamander(132), Evil Magic Sword(134), or Builder Golem(138).

• Starting at level 144, it would be ideal if you could fast kill Imitator Ultimate(146) from 144 to 150 with a good party. Alternatively, you can go to Iconos Ultimate (148) for an easier kill, and Odelon Machina (146) can be a good substitute as well. You can use them as filler until you reach the level requirement for next area if you're alone.
• You can grind Ifrid Ultimate (152) from level 146 until 156.

From level 151 to 200

• From level 148 until 156, you can run Ifrid Ultimate (152). Ultimate mode only needs party leader to be level 148, coupled with the boss being squishy and simple attack pattern, it's relatively easy to kill but deadly (within 8m around it) if you interrupted at less than half health. It burns through mercenaries easily, so tier 4 skill is the minimum requirement I suggest here. Commander Golem (154) can be an alternative until 160, but I don't recommend it to mages that use Finale without any tanks.

• Tyrant Machina (161) or York (158) can be done once you reach 156 until 162. Venena Coenubia Hard (160) can be an alternative. Wandering Wheel (163) can be an option too if you have Slow/Stop/Freeze ailment.

• Upon reaching level 162 to 178, you can immediately look for parties at Venena Coenubia Nightmare (170). Altoblepas (174) can be an alternative when you hit 170s.

• 179-181 will be very slow especially if you are not strong enough or doesn't have a good party, so I recommend continuing Main Quest. By the time you have just defeated Seele Zauga on the main quest, you will be around level 181. If that isn't possible, Altoblepas (174), Carbuncle (183), and Mithurna Lynx (177) may help you.

• From 181 to 199, you can grind Venena Coenubia Ultimate (190). An alternative grinding spot that is relatively relaxing is Grimuckus (195). You could also try Maton Sword Ultimate (183) or Ornlarf Ultimate (182).

• At level 198-199, we will now start grinding Frenzy Viola(198) and go back to main quest starting from the Garden of Ice and Snow up until we defeat Finstern the Dark Dragon. If you could find a reliable party, then going straight to Finstern will be the choice. An alternative here will be Seele Zauga (200).

From level 201 to 250

• We will continue the grind on Finstern up until level 210-214. An alternative will be Seele Zauga (200) and Canemofish (210).

• After that, you can start doing Kuzto Ultimate (218). An alternative here is Canemofish (210), Demonic Eye (212), Venena Metacoenubia Nightmare (215, only if you have good party) to grind up to level 222. In cases where you can't find parties on Kuzto, you can go to Canemofish and try to grind up to 215. Once you reach 214 or 215, you can decide to continue main quest all the way until you defeat Arachnidemon. If you cannot use main quest, just go straight to Espectro (221)

• After defeating Arachnidemon on main quest, you should be around 218, and here you can of course go to Kuzto or go back to Espectro (221). You can continue to grind at Espectro up until 227-228.

• It's possible to start grinding at Gravicep Ultimate (224) or Repthon Ultimate (227) at this point.

• From 228 onwards, we will be continuing our Main Quest until we hit at least 233 to skip a bothersome part, then continue to grind at Bullamius (239). If you can find strong parties on Arachnidemon(236), even better. You can continue the grind on these two until 244.
• From 244, you can continue the grind on Bullamius until you reach 246/247. A better alternative if you have a good party is to continue on Ferzen Ultimate or Gemma Ultimate until you reach level 250.
• An alternative mini boss for this level range is Ignitrus (251).
• If you reach around 245-247, go to Ferzen and grind until 260. If you're lacking levels to start on your own, doing some main quest until 248 is totally fine.
• Mimyugon NM is recommended from 255-265. You will need at least 50% pierce for this boss. If you have less attack/matk due to low budget equipment, you will need more p/m.pierce in its place. Velum Ultimate is an alternative.
• Brassozard (263) is a good mini boss to those looking for bow with 50% physical pierce. You can also grind here until 266-267.
• Orictoceras(272), Walican NM(267), Trus(269 and Exdocus (266) up until 270.
• If you have spare MQ you could use it skip some parts.

I'll update again later on if I find the time for it.

 

Great advice. Wish I had it before I finished my MQ <sigh>

 

Added some details after getting feedback.

 

you can also get a decent amount of exp from the parasite dogs. the quest "drinking pal at the fortress" is stackable and gives exp as well as collecting the parasite crystal to turn in. so you get a two for one while farming these guys. granted they might be found a little tough to kill, but my LUK famrer can use storm effectively enough with a magic device, and the INT is hampered a bit to have the high LUK

 

i did that quest and it wasn't really worth the effort. Corroded Sentry Fighters are very though, altough they also give the most exp. i called a lv200 merc to speed up the process and still took 2 game sessions to finish.
the estimated kill count to collect 1 stack is 2k. (that's like 50 stacks of the Free from Infesters quest).
i did gain a few levels here, but the quest reward was just 20% of the exp i got from the mobs. and 1 mithril ore, which is pretty much worthless considering the time spent to obtain it.
once you are out of the optimal level range, the exp decreases drastically but the farming won't be much easier.

in Step 1, going to Nisel Mountain early is not necessary. just doing the MQ normally i ended up at lv20 when exploring the Ruined Temple. optimal level range for maximum exp, got to lv27 when facing Minotaur.
lv28 at Nisel Mountain, still within the optimal range, quickly grinded to lv 32 and got enough materials for 1 turn-in of both quests.
i finished chapter 1 with lv34 and then gained 9 levels from the Challenge Dungeon lv25.
you don't need to win to get rewards, just try to kill as many mobs as possible before all crystals are broken.

 

Yeah, I agree, I tried that quest, and then tried Free from investors, and the latter is better because people are always looking for a party.
Illegal building in the dark is faster if you're impatient and have a lot of spina (Current market price is 33K) 330K gives you 6.6 million worth of exp.

It has a better exp per spina cost than Parasite crystals, at least for now.

Filecia in El scaro also has similar quests for 400k - 500k Exp, but their cost is not efficient.

If only people knew more of these farming locations and also the drop rate was increased slightly then the playerbase would get a bit more spread out than hogging certain locations.

 

I created this thread to be newbie friendly if possible. If we're gonna spend spina just because we are impatient, then it is not for them. I'm gonna edit the entire thing later tonight. If not tonight, perhaps tomorrow or if I'm free.

And by the way, I didn't include farming stuff like Parasite Crystals because the place can be too empty sometimes and you're better off just going straight for MQ or bosses instead of trying to farm it without full party.

 

Thank you for the guide slowly going through farming venena till lvl.195 really good as a I recently came back and needed a guide like this! Saved a bit of my main quest but not sure how much aha.

 

yea, i'm not talking about buying parasite crystals, the whole point is to farm them so you can also get the exp from turning in the drinking pals quest for killing tons of mobs of the dogs. the crystal gathering while you are getting the kills is a second side quest you can do at the same time.

 

- Changed format. Simplified it. Best suited for builds with combat skills.
- Updated up to 250.
Will update again. I forgot I made something like this

 

It's been over a year since my last update.
Since someone might stumble upon this ancient text one day, I'll just add some stuff.

- Updated up to 270 and changed some stuff.
If there's some feedback, still appreciate it.