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Level Gaining and Job Learning FAQ - Final Fantasy Tactics

v1.0 by Einhander (joebob@atlcom.net)

If you have any methods you find to be efficient for level gaining and/or job learning, please notify me. I'm always looking for ways to improve this FAQ, this being my first effort.

* METHODS *

I. BARIAUS VALLEY / ACCUMULATE TRICK

I've found this method to be most efficient in the game. Using is, mastering a whole class in one battle is not difficult at all.

1) Make sure everyone who you are building up has the Squire skills Gained JP Up and Accumulate. They are both fairly easy to learn, Accumulate requiring 300 JP and Gained JP Up 200. Move - Get EXP or Move - Get JP are also helpful, but not necessary. A few characters (such as Agrias, Cloud, or Orlandu) are incapable of learning Accumulate. I'll get to them later.

2) Self-explanatory. Modify the jobs or abilities the characters you're building up to the above requirements. Make sure they have Basic Skill. For the characters who can't use Accumulate, give them the "Item" skill. Go to a shop and purchase 99 Potions. It's not extremely expensive. Most characters will automatically know the Chemist skill "Potion".

3) Make your way toward Bariaus Valley. Get into a battle. Make absolute sure there is a yellow colored panther (the monster's actual name is "Red Panther") on the field, or the trick will not work. If there is not a Red Panther, reset and try again. They're not very uncommon - you should get one easily.

4) Once you are in the battle, start fighting all the enemies EXCEPT the yellow panther. In the middle of the Valley, a river will be flowing. At the beginning of the river, there will be a small, square shaped tile which you can move on. Your first priority will be moving a character onto it. He or she will be there the rest of the battle. Once you have done this, kill all the enemies but the panther. Keep your man on the tile, and isolate the panther onto one side of the map. Move all your other characters to the other side. Because Red Panthers cannot swim, he will stay on his side and not bother you. If he does get on your side, either something went wrong or you've got the wrong type of panther.

5) Once settled, start using the skill "Accumulate" for each turn your characters have. The skill raises your Physical Attack by +1, and gives you a hefty amount of EXP and JP for each use. And it will never stop taking effect. I've used it for two hours at one time and I kept getting EXP and JP the entire battle. For the characters incapable of using Accumulate, have them start beating up on your strongest character. Make sure not to kill him or her. When he/she is at low HP, just have the other character use potions on him/her. When his/her HP is maxed, repeat the process. Of course you'll eventually run out of potions, but it takes quite a while. And if your characters have Move - Jp Up or EXP up, just have them move around and then use Accumulate. You'll get a minimal amount, but hey, it helps.

Like I said, this is by far the best process for level and job gaining I've encountered. It's one of the only ways to build up a Calculator without losing your mind. And for extra fun, have the person with the weakest attack in your party (who used Accumulate in the battle) kill the Panther. You'll be happy to see what happens. But don't get your hopes up, it's only temporary, due to the repeated use of Accumulate. :)

If there is any way you feel this method could be improved, e-mail me.

II. MANDALIA PLAINS / CHOCOBO TRICK

This trick is not as good as the above one, and I never use it after reaching Bariaus. But, it was the first one I used, and is likely the best available till Bariaus.

1) Make sure everyone has Gained JP Up. Set your characters to the jobs you want to build up.

2) Get into a battle at Mandalia Plains. Make sure there is a Yellow Chocobo with Choco Cure on the field. Proceed to kill all the enemies (they won't be too hard) except one chocobo.

3) Trap the Chocobo to where it cannot move. Due to Mandalia's topography, it's possible to trap the Chocobo in dead ends with the use of less characters. You can also use rocks as barriers.

4) Many options lie open to you now. You can concentrate on one character and have he/she lower the bird's health to the point where it uses Choco Cure. The Cure will heal any damage the Chocobo may have done to your characters. Or, you can do this with more than one character and either use strong attacks with one and potions (on the chocobo) with the other, or attack the Chocobo twice with weak attacks or non-damaging magic. The rest is pretty much a free-form - any variation you feel would work to better the procedure probably will.

Note: It is possible that combining this method and the Bariaus/Accumulate
method would create something more efficient, but this is unconfirmed.
I'll experiment a bit and include the answer in a later version of the FAQ.

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This is all I have, for now. I will attempt to discover and master new methods and include them in a later FAQ. Your help, of course, would greatly be appreciated; like I said earlier, just e-mail me at joebob@atlcom.net.
Thank you.

* THANK YOU'S *

- My friend, Aaron, for helping me out with the game and first coming up
with the panther trick. Kudos.

Note: I don't take full credit - I only came up with the idea of adding Accumulate. .

- The maintainers of RPGgamer.com, who are just starting it up. Thanks.

- Ragnarok - his excellent Calculator FAQ inspired me to write this.

- Note: If you view the source of this, you'll notice it was crafted with Netscape Page Composer. I really hate using it rather than just leaving the FAQ a good old *.txt file, but I have problems keeping the text wrapped correctly, and it looks terrible when not the way I intended it to look.