Final Fantasy XII 122333 Challenge (This whole thread may contain spoilers)
As of yesterday I have finally started my 122333 challenge which I have been putting off for way too long.
If you are unaware, the 122333 challenge is basically a challenge to complete Final Fantasy XII at the lowest possible levels. These happen to be 1, 2, 3, 3, and 3.
I will be using this thread as a journal of my progress for anyone interested.
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There is only two times in the entire game where you are, unfortunately, forced to take permanent experience into your party. The first one comes right away with Vaan's rat-hunting. For shame, Vaan.
I never realized how much you can cheat by setting the battle speed to slow. You can clumsily run through crowds of aggro and come out safe and sound. Slow battle speed is essential in this challenge. I found that out right away.
Rogue Tomato is simple, no problems there.
I'm planning on grabbing the Zodiac Spear, so I've intentionally avoided the chest in front of Dalan's place.
Picked up Penelo, now it's time for the first heavy farming leg of the challenge. I want to buy everything that's available to me at this point of the game and 99 of every consumable item and leave off with about 100,000 gil to last me for awhile. Penelo is allowed to gain levels by herself at this point of the game because, as I understand it, her level is reset the next time you pick her up. I've been doing the Dustia trick to bring in the gil. I'll explain.
In the Westersand there is a rare monster called Dustia, an undead wraith-type monster that will only appear if you are in the Corridor of Sand zone with less than 10% HP. He is pretty fearsome, especially at such an early level. What allows you to kill him so early is that he doesn't have instant-death protection, and thus gets taken out with a single phoenix down a-la Phantom Train. There's more to the Dustia farming trick than just using a phoenix down on him, however. Here's the step-by-step:
- Run to the north exit of Galtea Downs and make sure there are no wolves trailing.
- Kill of Vaan. Don't want him getting any EXP.
- Unequip Penelo and have her beat herself up until she has less than 10% HP.
- Make absolutely sure you're on Wait and Slow battle settings.
- Enter the Corridor of Sand zone while holding down on the left stick, you're going to want to inch back as close to the zone line as you can get immediately after entering, this will force Dustia to spawn in a position that makes the next steps easier.
- Wait until Dustia's teleport animation is just about to finish so that he will come up as a possible target. Use a phoenix down on him.
- Grab his loot if he drops some and immediately zone back out into Galtea Downs before you see his EXP and LP come up on the screen. If you're quick enough, which you should be provided you followed my instructions of inching close to the zone line when you zoned in, Dustia will not be considered defeated, and thus will respawn without you having to worry about going three screens away or whatever.
- Repeat.
Dustia's common drop nets 500-some gil each, and his rare drop, the Flame Staff, nets well over 1000 each. Even though the game doesn't register his defeat, it does register the kill for your ends, so you will build up a chain on him as you go, grabbing up to 4 of his common drop and 2 of his rare drop at a time after awhile. The other cool thing is that Penelo will gain tons of LP and EXP, and will be able to easily do everything available to you at this point, all the hunts and such.
I'm just about to reach my goal with this farming method, and that's where I stand now. This should be the last run I'm doing now, I think.
