How do I not level up

[Swifthom]

Okay, I've played through not a lot of the game, just back from the first mission and Squalls levelled up 6 times so far...

I knew that enemies got harder as you levelled up, and I though I was prepared for it...
Then I saw i nanother topic where someone said they didnt level up ONCE in the entire game (except Irvine leveling up once) How do you do that?
How do you stop characters levelling up?

[G SpOtZ]

it's harddd, i've never tried it but i know it's hard. you just have to run away from all the battles. the thing is, you also can't gain ap, which means lack of useful abilities. i dunno how to not level up at all though.

[blackline77]

well whats the only way to level up is to fight so ummmm just run from battles and just use ur junction system for boss fights.....

[kikimm]

Yeah, just run away from battles.

But before you do that, draw magic, as that's really the thing that makes you stronger. ;)

[G SpOtZ]

ooh yeah, good call good call....

although... it'll only help you with default junctions, because you can't gain ap if you don't fight, so you can't get a lot of stat junctions.

[BG-57]

I think you can Card enemies to gain GF abilities without the characters increasing in levels. Sure sounds like a pain though.

[G SpOtZ]

well you usually need to weaken the monster to card it, and even if you hit a monster once, you get exp, so i don't know if that works... unless somehow you card the monster without weakening it. IT'S LIKE POKEMON!

[ShaunOfShadou]

Why do you not want to level up? Unless you're going for a low-level run through, there's no point in holding back on levelling; the monsters will beat on you just as badly as they will later in the game.

My advice is to win a lot of cards from players (without spreading the Random rule, of course), and use Card Mod to turn those cards into items, and then turn those items into powerful magic. An Abyss Worm card will get you a Windmill, which gets you 20 Tornadoes. Tornado junctions very well to HP early on in the game, and before you get past level 20 your characters can have well over 1000 HP.

Don't forget to learn HP% and Str% bonuses from your GFs as well, these will help you pretty much all the way through the game, especially the lethal HP+80%/Str+40%/Str+60% combo I have in Zell's abilites.

You will have to fight battles to earn the AP for these things. But it's also fun to watch how fast enemies fall when your characters are extra strong. :)

[Neco Arc]

i usually try to get past the game without leveling up until i get the magical lamp from cid. then i beat diablos and let it learn enc-half (about 30ap), then enc-none(about 100). To let it learn those abilities, without leveling up, I go to the beaches near Balamb and i get into encounters with those fish(cant remember the names but starts with F) then i attack one of them with Squall first followed by the other two characters ONCE (therefore Squall using critical, with strength junction; and zell without) followed by card... If you dont card the enemy try again and again and again. (once you card the enemy go for the other one the same way.) Once both are carded you win the battle without gaining exp (provided you carded the enemy and did not kill them.) damaging then killing the enemy results in exp gain... It may take a long time to finish but you will learn the Enc ablilties without any leveling...it does get boring after a while but it works. (try and get mug before even leaving for timber...)

[x_Hopeless_Deviate_x]

Fight Cactuars.
I know you can't do that until you get the Ragnarok but they give you very little exp and lots of AP.

[SeeDRankLou]

Why do you not want to level up? Unless you're going for a low-level run through, there's no point in holding back on levelling; the monsters will beat on you just as badly as they will later in the game.
As you level up, the monsters level up. But monsters receive an exponetially higher stat increase as they level up than the characters do, and thus it is an advantage to stay at low levels.

To not level up at all is a tad difficult, but very doable. Running is a good tactic to not level up, but running in this game lowers you SeeD Rank, so it's a detriment. So, the easiest (and easy) way to not level up is to Card. In the beginning, set Quezacotl to learn Card and run from all battle before the Dollet exam, not before getting magic. You should take ShaunOfShadou's advice about playing cards and collecting a lot of them and when you learn Card Mod turning them into cards. To make that process go faster, when you get a few good cards go to Balamb and play cards with the Queen of Cards. She will start changing up the trade rules. Once you see her use All a few times, go to someone else in Balamb and play cards with them. If they don't use the All rule, cancel the card game and play again. Once this person uses the All rule, beat that person and the All rule should stay with you for most of the game. Anyway, that will speed up collecting cards, and play Zell's mom for higher level cards. So, once you get to Dollet and start battling, kill Squall and Zell and let Seifer fight the Galbadian troops until you learn Card. Don't go past the bridge until you're done. And if you want, you can set Quezacotl to learn Card Mod after that and stay on the bridge and learn that as well, that should put you over the necessary kills to get a 100 in that department too, but it's not necessary. Once you learn Card, put it on the character and don't take it off except for boss fights. Card everything from this point on. If you run into soldiers in Dollet after the Anacandaur fight, kill Squall and let Zell and Selphie fight them, beat them with a GF (running in Dollet will lower your exam grade). You won't run into enough to level up. Be sure to revive Squall before going to the lift. Ok, so before you go to Timber, get Diablos and learn St-Mag RF. Card Mod a Cockatrice card or two and St-Mag RF the Cockatrice Pinion for 20 Breaks. Use these against any human enemy normal fight. The only human enemies that won't petrify (well they will, but there's a 1% chance) is the Galbadian Cyborg. You won't run into many of those in the second dream, so just run from them. GIM52As in the D-District Prison also don't petrify, run from them too. As a general rule about human and GIM52A fights, if the screen blurs to the side, that's a fight in which EXP will be gained. If the screen splits into fourths and blurs into the center of each, no EXP will be gained. Finally, when you get control of the Garden, before the Garden battle get Tonberry but don't get Odin. To do this, go to the Centra Ruins and fight Tonberries until you don't have much time left. Leave and go back, the time will reset but your Tonberry count won't. Keep a count, and when you get to about 18, save, because you're about to fight Tonberry King and you'll need a decent amount of time for that, you don't want to be left with like two minutes to fight it. During the Laguna dream where you meet Dr. Odine, use Lv Down on the Galbadian Cyborgs to get them to level one so that you only get five or six EXP. That should do you.

[crazybayman]

Card everything. This should be the first ability Quezacotl learns.

In each fight just damage your enemies to around 75% (take away around 75% of their HP), or something like that. When they are at low health, card them. You'll get the AP, and no EXP.

[GunbladeMaster]

here: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/psx/file/final_fantasy_viii_nolevelup.txt

[* White Aeris *]

i'm starting a low level game at the moment. i'm at D-District prison and already i've got all level 1,2,3,4,5(apart from PuPu),6 cards. And once i get to FH i can get all lvl 7. The game gets really adicctive to me.... but my characters have gone a couple of levels up because while carding my characters sometimes kill the monsters (Laguna got me 2 lvls up! didn't realise he was so strong!).... but enough of my rambling......
EDIT: running lowers your SeeD level??? damn it... i need to keep it high....

[Qurange]

Personally, I like staying relatively low-level--when I actually do level up, I have a habit of making it past where the level cap is for the boss in question, whereas in this runthrough Seifer was actually a higher level than Squall at Deling City. I was so pleased with that.

But for me, I just used Scan and tried to be very careful about attacking anything--drawing and casting magic with your low-magic-stat party members is usually helpful, and once you get Diablos, he'll be invaluable.

..For my part, I still didn't like to run, so I just took it when I met things I couldn't Card, and still managed to stay under level 20 until about midway through Disc 2, when I stopped bothering so much.

[Light Mage]

At the start of my game I killed off Squall and Zell in Dollet, letting Seifer do the battles that you can't escape from - and earning AP for the GF's.

Then using Quetzacoatl's CARD ability you can defeat enemies, earning AP but no EXP. Do this until you can have Diablos learn ENC-NONE.

Sorted.