Advice on gil funds and shortages

[ValiantKnight]

Searched a bit but didnt see anything for earlier in the game.

I am currently at the temple whose name I can't remember or spell in the desert passed the sandsea that had a small avion bird guarding it.

3 characters have 1 quickening each at this point, and most of the license board is doing fairly fine I think. So far XII reminds me quite a lot of Dragon Quest 8 in terms of severe lack of funds vs overleveling.

I have mostly new equipment, and all the spells bought, but there is a merchant who appears after you defeat the bird outside the temple that has some new equipment that looks nice.

I'm not having any trouble with any of the enemies around here, aside from marks being a little lengthy... a certain wyvern.

However keeping in the newest clothes at each stop in the story is putting an incredible strain on the wallet. And I'm afraid that trying to finance new spells/clothes keeps me overleveled and destroys the challenge.

I'm already in my low 20s/high 10s, which by the ease of which everything in the sandsea was falling, I'm sure is too high for here. I've tried chaining 50+ chains of skeletons in the mines, but that shoots the levels up very fast. Also recently tried chaining the bird monsters here in sandsea for bent staffs, but they seem to drop it too rarely to moderately efficient.

The staffs sell for 1100, and would be a good boost if they were a bit more common.
Aside from going back to the beginning and chaining wolves for hours for 35x99 gil on wolf pelts for about the experience of one skeleton in the mines... are there any other nice places to nab gil without shooting levels up?

I don't really mind being overleveled I guess, and maybe 20 is normal for here. Just the basic concern that gil is extremely rare in this game.

Yes I'm using Foe = 100% > Steal on Vaan
Yes I'm chaining as best I can to get more items.

If this was asked elsewhere, forgive me, didn't see any topics related to early game in the searches, and I haven't progressed that far in 3 days of playing.

[Lawr]

Lol. I restarted my file and I'm a little bit ahead of you! Henne Mines.

Make sure you don't waste all of your money before you are about to go to the west-most section of the map. Once you have activated a red switch and agreen switch, then you return to Dyce and buy what you want/need/can. It helped me out.(I won't mention specifically because of the variations you can have on your characters.)

Here is a hint, If you buy things, try to see and check if you can survive the dungeon, you won't always need the best equipment to beat a dungeon.

[Ogrius]

Kill the little red guys, god I cant remember the name of them for the life of me, back in the first couple of screens of the sandsea. They drop succulent fruits which are worth abour 300ish a piece and they drop them a lot and you can steal them a lot, one trip there and spend about 20 minutes and you shoul dbe able to buy anything you want. The biggest thing is to make sure you steal from EVERYTHING, that should help keep your funds up.

[Timerk]

There is an accessory called Firefly which keeps you from earning EXP, try equipping one or two of those when you are farming for Gil.

[leader of mortals]

I never steal and i still get good money. All you have to do is fight every single thing you go by(within your level range that is). Lhusu mines are great for money too.

[zeonmx]

kill worgen and they drop those wolf blood. Those rootings cost worth some high amount of money. I only had 14 of them and sold for about 12000

[Renmiri]

kill worgen and they drop those wolf blood. Those rootings cost worth some high amount of money. I only had 14 of them and sold for about 12000
Worgen is way past Henne mines at Mosphorian Highwaste!

K, to get gil early in the game:
A) Lhusu Mines, floating city of Bhujerba - Skeletons drop 199 gil Bone fragments, almost every time, 40 or more if you keep running back ad forth n the last 2 stretches before you go up the stairs on the last chamber. 50 x 199 = kaching! :D

Use the money made on A to buy all the books / Grimoires you see on the Bazaar. They increase the odds of you getting rare items dropped.

B) Nam Yensa Sandsea, 3 last areas close to the tomb of raythwall (the temple guarded by a bird you referred ;) ). Kill the blue turkeys (Axelbeak) they drop Raimbow eggs at 500 gill a pop but it is a rare drop, you have to try to chain them. There's an area northeast of the tomb - Simoon's Bluff - that is full of a armored urstrix (Bagoly). Their rare drop is "Bent Staff" at 1100 gil :D If you bought all the books on the bazaar you should get at least 5-6 per trip to the area. If not, try to chain them and you might get 2 or 3 per turn.

C) Golmore Jungle, before you finish Henne mines and open the passage to Mt. Bur-Omisace: Chain Coeurl to get coeurl pelts, Marlboro to get Marlboro vine and Gargoyles to get Demon eyes. save often, heal often. There's a freakish dog / wolf there that tend to gang up on your party and make you get game over before you get to sell any loot :(

[zeonmx]

I killed worgens at lvl 22...

[ValiantKnight]

Fast foward, and B party is 23-25, while A party is 31-32.
Killed all hunts so far except for two in the waterway, and one in zertinan(sp?) caverns... for obvious reasons.

I'll probably take B party back to the mines and chain skeletons for a bit, but will also try the jungle. Got to the Mount and now I'm supposed to be heading to stillshrines of miriam(probably didn't spell that right).

Well looked at the stuff for sell on the mountain and it all looks nice.. but I didn't buy the last new set of armor when it came available, and I'm out of money after buying spells and a pair of thief cuffs.

Have all the spells so far(finally someone sells fira/thundara/blizzara... why it took so long I don't know..), and a few grimroires.

Ring Wyrm was fun but exhaustingly long to kill. Gil Snapper got way too strong once he hit critical, and after the party started dying too fast to keep the damage going, I had to bring in B team for a quickening chain to finish him :(

Got two decent swords, Demonsbane, and an Ice Brand.
No real problem killing anthing so far, just staying alive is a little rougher up here on the mountain.... perhaps the armor would help since I'm still in armor bought from outside the Tomb.

More skeleton chaining and possibly jungle chaining I guess.

Also, does anyone else experience slow frame rates/lag around hellhounds in groups of 4-5.. with all their shiney and glowy effects. A little worried my PS2 may be getting old, as it also would do similar in Dragon Quest 8 when I would fight 6+ enemies at a time in some areas.

[Renmiri]

Got the same around hellhounds. :(

You may be at a good level to take a detour to the Feywood before you get to Mirian. Tons of good loot to be had :D

But save first, there's a rough crowd of mandragoras there ;)

[ValiantKnight]

Well I had detoured to the feywood once already before heading to the mount.

I ran in.... 3 little cute things come up and start to attack. I'm not sure if I had protect on or not, but they were hitting upwards of 400+ and fast.

Ok... I've faced things almost as rough I think, and stay for a few seconds, til the status effects from something started rolling in.. and disabling half my party, while the other half got triple teamed and Vaan goes down, and Basch runs fast as he can while the guest dies and Penelo sits there sleeping.

[Renmiri]

Stillshrine has good loot too so if Feywood is too hard for you just go to the stillshrine and stay running around there till you are at the same level as Larsa.

Matching the level of your guest is a good rule of thumb :D

[ValiantKnight]

But he dies alot.. :)

Up to riskbreaker I think now on clan rank.
Did a few hunts, the blobs in the sewers... they were rough without gambits and strategy... but Fira and in one of them's case.. Reflect, helped immensely.

Beat the Earth Tyrant in northern westerlands, explored a little of the area after him, morsomething highsomething.. name is hard to remember/pronounce. Nice cameo of Biggs and Wedge(letters switched around) at the Nalbina entrance to there. I came out and little scene with both of them.. How.... how you come across with so many beasts? :)

B party is 28, A party is 31. All have armor from the mountain....

Giza Plains still isn't dry. Entertaining the idea of going after Marylith(sp?) in zertinan, but not sure how far I'd get. Also accepted the antilon hunt and would imagine he's rough, but the npc seems like its time sensative. Bravery, Faith, Bubble, and Bubble belts are nice, but even more money to get for them.

And the Panthers in the jungle were really nice. 10+ of them, a short zone connecting it to ozmone, for quick resets of panthers, and the pelt is their common drop, really faster than skeletons, and 60-100% more money. Hope theres more nice places like that when the armor starts costing 20,000..

**
All pre-stillshrine hunts completed at least that I know of that I can get. B party now 30, A party 32
Thought i'd go in there real smug with bravery, faith, bubble belts and kill the antlion..... yeah erm yeah. He hit hard, but slow gambits held him down and charge got just enough MP to keep healing, so until 10%, theres no problem, then he starts going a little faster at 10%, and starts killing folks, then slow wears off, and 3 out of 4 instantly die. I kinda quickly reset all the raise gambits to phoenix downs... and pulled ashe in to try a quickening.. the antlion killed her though. So my main party of Vaan, Basch, and Penelo all died save Penelo who got switched out. I bring in the remaining three, and since he's at 9% and slow was wearing soon.... I decided to go the quickening route /shame. Well the mist charges they don't like me and it only got 6 hits(all my characters only have 1 quickening each so far). So it hits for a good bit of damage, and I can't see anymore of his life bar, so I switch the gladius off Basch and Vaan to Balthier and Fran, and attack... He kills Penelo and has Balthier, who borrowed the shielded armor from basch, down to 150 life when fran stabs him one last time for 500.. and he rolls over dead. Yay! What an insane hunt. And I love Basch tanking it with bravery, bubble belt, shielded armor(auto protect), and doing a fine job for 85% of the mark's life. Warp helped in the beginning when pulling then sending its babies away... but it did consume one of the babies and grew stronger...

[Renmiri]

Mosphoran Highwaste is choc full of monsters with good loot. The wolves drop "throat wolve's blood" at $1,200 a drop, the slavens drop $1,000+ items too, the Humbababa too :D explore around there, run back to save & sell, do it a couple of times and you will be set for the next 5-6 missions :D

PS: Go back to Rabanastre and go to Mushu's Bazaar. Being Riskbreaker will let you buy good Techniques and spells at the clan shop there. Then get on an airship, "leisure" mode and visit the shops on the observation deck. Buy Syphon :D

[Dynast-Kid]

Mosphoran Highwaste is choc full of monsters with good loot. The wolves drop "throat wolve's blood" at $1,200 a drop, the slavens drop $1,000+ items too, the Humbababa too :D explore around there, run back to save & sell, do it a couple of times and you will be set for the next 5-6 missions :D

PS: Go back to Rabanastre and go to Mushu's Bazaar. Being Riskbreaker will let you buy good Techniques and spells at the clan shop there. Then get on an airship, "leisure" mode and visit the shops on the observation deck. Buy Syphon :D

And when you go to Muthru Bazaar, try to pick up the accessory, Nihopalaoa. It's amazing. But it's quite expensive (30,000 gil), so you'd better get a bunch of loot to sell.

[ValiantKnight]

I dont remember anything but Bravery, Faith, and Bubble being for sell, no techniks.

I bought 3 bubble belts and got one for beating antlion.

No more marks to hunt, but will check the airship.. I had looked around all the shops and no more magic was being sold.

I had hesitated on that accessory, and its expensive.... I might get one.
B party is almost as high as A party tho, so I guess I better start progressing the story soon.

Hmm nothing but phoenix downs, potions, antidotes, gyshal, and teleport stones on the airship, but i got a quest from a clerk there.
And throat wolf blood drops far far too uncommonly to be faster than couerl pelts so far that I see.
In a 60 chain of wolves, I got 9 bloods, where I would get about 70 pelts...

Pelts are like 400x70, where bloods are 9x1200.

Although I did steal two prime pelts from a giant wolf.

[Renmiri]

Didn't you see Shyphon on the airship ? Maybe you only see it after Archades then. Get the sisters quest, it is easy and gives you Ring of Regen :D

That big Wolf is a rare game :D:D:D

[ValiantKnight]

The accessory is fun to use.. glad it only effects items, not spells.

Threw a remedy on a wolf in the rift.. and a billion status effects come up on him :)

Also erm.. this may be a rather dumb question, but is there a way to change your party leader mid battle(when you can't substitute him out)

ie.. something is targeting him and you cant rearrange the party to get the leader you want, is there another way to change the party leader besides that?

[Renmiri]

KO' your leader ? Have a Phoenix Down ready

FFXII does not let you change characters when they are being targeted :(

[ValiantKnight]

ah ok thanks anyway

That was pretty low what they did to the holy mountain..... and infusing one's body with that junky ore. /sighs.. off to the phon coast.

[Renmiri]

You got the jerk back, didnt you ? And soon Vayne will get what's coming to him too :D

[ValiantKnight]

Phon Coast, was poor again, but after a run of panthers and new weapons from Phon, I decided to play in the Felwood.... very...very nice selling stuff.

Also went around completing all the marks.... the deadlands is a little rough.

So finally I'm all decked out with Phon Coast Hunter camp gear, and bought my last needed bubble belt before I lost the ability to by gaining paragon of justice(/sighs).... not sure why a riskbreaker can buy them but a paragon can't.

The darkened fragment from the holy mountain acoloyte still poses questions I will have to look into.... as does the steam powered floating grass in the morgansomething highwaste.... Killed a Shield Wyrm up in deadlands and got a liver. That carrot sure wasn't a carrot... Sledgehammer + Orichalum(sp?) dagger + silent shot = monsters don't stand a chance.... :)
Lots of small mini quests it seems that aren't talked about alot in the main storyline.. like the darkened fragment from the holy mountain, or someone commenting on a dragon near the mountain, or the things the empire science fellow says in the caravan camp about the floating plants....

More exploring to do... so little time.... Explore/sidequest... or main story... decisions..... decisions. Oh well, need sleep.

Also is it bad if my file reads.. I think 55hours.. and I started playing this on the night of the 24th?
:)

[Renmiri]

The floating plants will yield you an esper, Exodus, I think :D

You will need a chocobo too, not just the steam gates.

[ValiantKnight]

The mad scientist and his shadow demon just left the capital city...

maybe its time to do some sidequests, not sure how far I am into the game.
And you're pretty active on here for answering questions, thanks.

[Renmiri]

about 60% I think. Giruvegan is next, then the tower. You need to be around level 60 for the tower so you may want to use this time to do some hunts and level up a bit.

Try the "International Man of Mistery" hunt. Great fun :D

[ValiantKnight]

5 hunts down...
Not buying armor yet, as I think Phon coast is pretty close, but I did pick up ninja gear and thief hat. Probably going to be killing thru the feywood to get a little cash, then off to the south of it. Level 40-43 now... my B team is being used more than my A team... guess thats bad.

Some of the hunts are amusing, but Firaga doesn't seem as strong as Id hoped. Or maybe the monsters were just resistant. Shield wyrms are fun to kill and so many in that region... Two of the hunts are in a place I walked into and got almost killed in 5 seconds though.. necrohol of Nabunis(sp?).. I walked in there on my way to the coast during the game, and well... it wasn't pretty getting hit for 900~ with protect on... 4 of them hasted, and fran made it to the exit with 250 life.

Lindwyrm was an endurance fight.. very powerful, but not altogether overwealming.. Restore is annoying. Darksteel was a pushover.. I'm not sure what I did wrong, I thought he was supposed to be strong, but the highest he hit me for was 200 with protect, and he died very quickly. Overseer went down fast as well, but his damage output is insane... tore threw that little guy and he was dead when the overseer was at like 90%... The viera dragon monster wasn't too bad.. not sure what to do with the dragon scale though. Belito was rather rough til slow landed on the headhunter, and I started killing the others.. their damage output when all four are there is pretty hefty. So now I'm a high guardian, and the only hunts left are ancient man of mystery, the deathscythe, and a golem both in necrohol... and I doubt I can take the man of mystery... from what he sounds like.

Hmm.. to explore or to the feywood...

[Gabranth]

i'm in the exact spot you're at as far as the hunts go, and i'm debating the same exact thing. what do you guys think, i got like 130 grand, should i fight some more and get 120 more grand for that canopic jar in the bazaar? or should i just upgrade my weapons/armor/spells when i get the chance

[ValiantKnight]

:) weeeeeeee
Knight of the Round clan rank.

70minutes of earning it.... Sheesh Man of Mystery is tough in round 2.
He's a wimp in round 1.. but in round 2 this is just not so...

So.... beat him the first time after watching him fall on his head flying to the bridge.. :) and he wasn't too bad. stole a few nice things too. So I follow him down into the mines.... and well I notice these enemies are like level 55-60 and I'm 42-43.... So even tho its rough and slow, I clear my way to our friend Gilgamesh and save. I head in.... and find that no status effects work on gilgamesh, and very few work on his dog... so I spend a few minutes killing the dog... and somehow gilgamesh just kinda laid back and rested while his dog tanked my whole team... somehow when I got it down to 10% life, it just didnt want to die after dying decently quick til then... so I was forced to use a quickening chain..... only a 6 hitter, but it killed him. Then came the fun party, at some times it would take all 3 people healing to keep the tank alive on Gilgamesh, and then sometimes he'd just 5hit the tank and kill him anyway. He hits for 1400 with protect on a dragon armored Basch with 7000 life.... and for 2900 on a Ninja/Thief geared Vaan with 7400 life.... So overall I think Basch died at least 20 times, and Penelo about 10, and Vaan about 10, and Ashe about 5.... It went ok on the steadyness til around 40%, and it started to slow up a bit, as he started to get meaner it seemed, or maybe it was me trying to steal. Got both items, and got him down to about 15% and it stalled there for a few minutes as he kinda liked to 4hit the tank a lot there for a while... and it takes time to get protectga, decoy, curaga, haste, and other spells back up. But after 10-15minutes killing the dog, and 55minutes on Gilga, yep he died. Only thing I regret is I can't come back when I'm 99 and teach him a little lesson. He stole his sword back.. so not sure how the hunt will be completed... and I'm saved outside his room... too tired to tunnel back out of the mines now.

So... Ancient Man of Mystery... 43, 43, 43, 43, 42, 42.. and it was insanely long... :) Yes those 42s were my healers.... yes that did make things rather fun and if I lost I was going to level both of them.

Oh and giruvegan was also troubling.. a two year old could have drawn a better map than the one in game.....

sorry if it offended anyone on the map comment... tired I guess.

*edit*

Oh and during battle, to change leader its just pressing the up/down arrow.... how silly of my to miss it.

[Renmiri]

You get the hunt even without the sword.

Aye the map at the great Crystal s*cks.

Oooo. Why didn't I think of that! Up arrow FTW

I will go back at level 99 to nab that show off :D:D:D

[ValiantKnight]

The cat ear hood has a massive speed bonus, but my characters don't seem to move all that much faster...

and hmm..

Two hunts left for now.. both in Necrohol... to brave its 900(with Protect) hitting minions or to venture elsewhere..

The upper areas of the Highwaste perhaps, or the Barheim passage that I got the key for a while back..., or to find out about the "corruptor" that was mentioned at the holy mountain and I got a stone from an acolyte...

Or to venture into Zertinan, or back to ...... that dreaded giruvegan.. as there seemed to be more paths.. tho its very confusing.
And talk of a wyrm chasing airships...

Or to simply continue and head over to find this tower far away...

[Renmiri]

Go to Phon Coast and get the mission from the Huntmaster. And there are almost 10 new hunts for ya on the Notice Board.

I got to the tower and one of the fist bosses was an Elite Mark. One I had not accepted yet. I'm hoping I will still get the hunt complete if I killed before the contract, if not... Bummmer I'd hate to do it all over again. The tower is huge!

[ValiantKnight]

Hmm then perhaps I shall advance the story a bit after checking out Necrohol..... cause I have no more hunts from monte or the board at the moment.

Cash is still a bit slim... very expensive things and new armor at every town... I guess sound advice is to rough it through as many story events as possible while building money, then buy everything.. then rough it through more story events... cause buying new armor at every story sequence or every other just depletes money a bit fast.... its not hard to get more money.. just takes a bit of time :)

ie... buy armor at say Town B.. then rough it thru C, D and possibly E... then buy armor at E or F... :)

Though I am a bit of obsessive compulsive I've been told, so buying armor every new set that comes out could be draining the money supply.

[Renmiri]

Mosphorian Highwaste, Feywood, Nabudis, Cerobi Steppe all have high $$$ loot. Just level up a bit there :D

Did you get Exodus, Zalera and Adrammelecht yet ? High loot quests all of those :D

[ValiantKnight]

Exodus, Hashmal, and Famfrit(sp?) gotten..

Dr. Cid is a very.... insane man....
That tower was.... very long.... and some of the soliders and gigas type monsters put my party in more pain than the bosses.

Stuff is expensive at 15,000 a pop for armor for and weapons for 6 folks.

Need more money still :) but I'm running out of spells to buy so I guess thats good...., but need to find four more spells, but I guess they'll come available after this flying fortress Bahamut...

But tired tonight, the tower was nice, but the story still is a little quirky confusing at times. Went through necrohol and beat the two marks there.. Golliath and Deathscythe.. the latter of which took his sweet time in appearing. Some things are sealed there so I guess I'll be coming back later. Nabbed a Maximillian from one of the monster drops there...