Obtaining the Power Generator...

why, oh why, didn't i set those traps in the excavation site? my life would be so much easier...

so, when is the best time to persue this agonizing task?

the ONLY other way to get the Power Generator (which i want to teach Quistis her Ray Bomb limit break) is to Mug it from a Blitz...found around esthar i believe.

the stats are as follows:
the blitz has to be lvl 70-99 i think, and you have odds of 3 out of 64 of Mugging it (simplified from 12 out of 256).

now maybe i'm just really dumb but, when should i be looking for this thing? when my chars are around lvl70? or when they're lvl 99?

i know it seems obvious that the answer is 70 but on my last play-through of the game, i dedicated some hours to getting this...Squall and company were in their 90s, and i had Rare Item along with some luck junctioned and i STILL could not get the damn thing, so that led me to doubt the success rait of mugging at high lvls.

any advice?

Don't level your characters up - use Tonberry's LvlUp ability to level up the Blitz.

I found them more frequently near the mountains by the Centra Ruins. They also appear kind of frequently in the forest area just south of there. It is a rather long and grueling task, I didn't set all the traps my first time to play through. I would agree that you should use Tonberry's Lvl Up ability instead of leveling up yourself. I'd say your problem is that you have Rare Item equipped, do not do this. I don't know why but that greatly hinders your chances of mugging rare items in this game. And I'm pretty sure you can do this as early as level 30.