Mondatime

Necronopticous and I have been doing this challenge playthrough for the last few weeks, and we're nearing the end of it. I wanted to post about it as we progressed, but I didn't! I did take a few notes, though. Maybe they'll be helpful to someone in the future.

First things first: we've been following a guide on GameFAQs. Here's the link: GameFAQs: Final Fantasy XII (PS2) Low Level Challenge FAQ by JustStep25.

Secondly, the basics: 122333 are the initial levels of all the permanent, playable characters (Vaan, Balthier, Fran, Basch, Ashe, and Penelo, respectively). It is actually possible to prevent level increase throughout the whole game, which I think is pretty neat! The characters stick to light armor and guns, for the most part. This is because light armor increases hit points in addition to defense; and guns ignore enemy defense as well as character level (meaning that a character at level one can do as much damage with a gun as, say, a character at level 60). As a bonus, guns don't miss their targets.

However, a lot of gil is needed in order to make this challenge work, so a lot of time is spent on gil farming. I'm happy to say that the methods aren't as tedious as you might expect. Dustia-chaining is the best method early in the game (you make money off of Dustia's loot). Later, after accessing the Salikawood, stealing items from King Bomb and selling them is the best method. After the events in Mt. Bur-Omisace and the Stilshrine of Miriam, chaining Dark Lords (in the room where you fight and defeat Zeromus) for their common drop is the fastest and most rewarding.

As for avoiding exp: the guide I linked above instructs you to collect Firefly accessories (they prevent experience gain) from a chest in the Stilshrine of Miriam. However, they can be obtained much earlier in the game -- immediately after the events in the Tomb of Raithwall and Shiva, because, then, you have access to the Mosphoran Highwaste. Before then, you just avoid killing enemies that give experience points. Bosses, espers, and marks do not, so they're fair game.

Some miscellaneous tips:

• The immobilize glitch is the most useful exploit in this challenge. It allows you to traverse areas you normally wouldn't explore without high levels and a lot of buffs. If you don't know about it already, here's a video to demonstrate: FFXII LLC - Immobilize Glitch - YouTube. What you do is have one character cast Immobilize on himself/herself (remember that you can't have any other characters in your party when one casts Immobilize, or they'll be inflicted with it, too). Then, add one more character to your party and make him/her your party leader. As you run through areas with this character, you change your party leader to the immobilized character whenever enemies are in view, then back to the character you're exploring with. This causes enemies to disappear. Very useful for dungeons with tough foes.
• Unequipping and re-equipping a character's weapon will reset his/her action bar. This can be useful during tough fights, when you need an optimal amount of turns (normally, actions are followed by a delay).
• You must run at least 3 screens away from a treasure in order for it to spawn again. I think it's quicker to save at a crystal, if one is nearby, then reset/start from there each time a collection attempt fails.
• I didn't know this until recently, but there are 4 chain levels, and you can reach chain level 4 very quickly when chaining enemies simply by not collecting their loot before reaching the final chain level.