Endgame money making and leveling spots?

[Goldenboko]

Simple enough, need to start rakin' in the dough and CP once I finish the easy Marks. Stupid 2 mil Catalyst :/

Strategies? Enemies? Locations? Etc?

[Raistlin]

Did you just beat the game? How much of the Crystarium have you mastered for everyone? The best combination of both gil-making and CP farming is fighting Adamantortoises, but it might be a bit slow at first since at first you'll probably need to use a Summon to knock it down. You should probably start with the Adamantortoises because they're a bit weaker than the Adamantoises (they can be differentiated by somewhat shorter tusks). You should do Mission 55 for the Growth Egg to double CP as soon as possible; it will require you using Vanille for Death and likely at least a few attempts, but it's worth it (see my half-finished Missions guide for more details).

An alternate place for just CP farming is the place where the King Behemoth is fighting the other big monster in that narrow path by one of the Steppe's waystones. It should take only 10-15 seconds and gives you 13200 CP with the Growth Egg. For just gil, the Sacrifices (white Cie'th things) in the chapter 13 dungeon drop Perfumes which can be sold for a fair amount.

DO NOT buy a Trap, unless you get to at least 3.5 million gil without getting any at all from the Adamantoises/tortoises. That's the amount it would cost you to buy a Trap and fully upgrade one of Vanille's or Fang's weapons to dismantle it for 3 Traps. You will probably get one by then.

[Goldenboko]

I knew that you could dismantle something to get three Traps. Probably start by Death-ing for the growth egg then, CP Farming the King Behemoth location, then money making with whatever looks best.

[Shin Gouken]

Did you just beat the game? How much of the Crystarium have you mastered for everyone? The best combination of both gil-making and CP farming is fighting Adamantortoises, but it might be a bit slow at first since at first you'll probably need to use a Summon to knock it down. You should probably start with the Adamantortoises because they're a bit weaker than the Adamantoises (they can be differentiated by somewhat shorter tusks). You should do Mission 55 for the Growth Egg to double CP as soon as possible; it will require you using Vanille for Death and likely at least a few attempts, but it's worth it (see my half-finished Missions guide for more details).

An alternate place for just CP farming is the place where the King Behemoth is fighting the other big monster in that narrow path by one of the Steppe's waystones. It should take only 10-15 seconds and gives you 13200 CP with the Growth Egg. For just gil, the Sacrifices (white Cie'th things) in the chapter 13 dungeon drop Perfumes which can be sold for a fair amount.

DO NOT buy a Trap, unless you get to at least 3.5 million gil without getting any at all from the Adamantoises/tortoises. That's the amount it would cost you to buy a Trap and fully upgrade one of Vanille's or Fang's weapons to dismantle it for 3 Traps. You will probably get one by then.

There's a spot not far from where you fight the behemoth and big wolf thing which nets over 7000CP without the growth egg (so over 14000 with the growth egg) it's a group of bombs that appear in an optional area of the caves.

EDIT: Though it may not seem like a much better spot (only slightly more CP) the battle is under 10 seconds and because there are 6-7 enemies the chances for drops is better, nabbing you often a few bomb cores or bomb ashes per fight.

I havn't fought an adamantoise yet. Had my arse handed to me by an adamantortoise though. Where can i find the weaker versions?

[Masamunemaster]

im just going to say this post may contain spoilers....easier to say it than tag it all

I prefer farming the admantortoise for cp cause it gives you 40k for a 3-5 min fight if you win....simple strategy that works for me...

Vanille(SAB)-leader
Hope(SYN)til everyone has buffs all over then switch to MED just in case
Snow(SEN)

Go into the battle and before anything else happens summon Hecacontier, so the tortoise will drop down so it cant attack. That should buy you time to do about 6-8 Death spells before the summon leaves(dont switch to Gestayl(sp?) mode). As soon as Hope is back, he should have had just enough time to haste himself at the beginning, he will buff like crazy starting with haste. Pretty much keep casting death over and over and hope it works...even with the best SEN and MED it will only last 5ish mins before he starts using his magics and kills the party....just keep repeating it over and fighting the other battles to raise your TP back up. The easiest way to respawn the tortoise is to save and reload.

I think in total I got about 60k cp in less than 30mins, but that was a lucky streak.

Hope this helps

[Karifean]

IMO the best way to farm CP is - by far - killing the KB + Megistotherios over and over. The fight iss about 7-11 seconds, nets you 13200 CP with the Growth Egg, you have a forced pre-emptive strike and due to the fact they're fighting each other, they both start with 50% HP. I usually have ComComCom active to kill them as fast as possible. Though if you fail to kill the KB before he transforms, you probably want to have a ravager to stagger him. And you can quickly respawn the two by running back a bit behind the save point and returning. Damn quick.

Though I don't think it makes sense to level more than the 3 main jobs to Level 5 this way, for you'll need to farm Adaman(tor)toises anyway, and they also give a load of CP upon kill.

I personally use Fang, Vanille and Hope for Adamantoises and start with a SynSynMed paradigm (yeah, I leveled non-base jobs) and cast the improved Protect as well as Haste on everyone. Next I just stagger the legs and use Highwind on 'em afterwards, instantly killing them. I use SabSabSab once the Adamantoise crumbles and then go all out. Probably an unefficient way, though, as it requires killing the legs twice to finally beat it. And then you just pray for Platinum Ignot or Trapezohedron...

[Loony BoB]

Next I just stagger the legs and use Highwind on 'em afterwards, instantly killing them.

What is your STR at on Fang? I always needed to stagger them to 350-400% before Highwinding them.

EDIT: Use the 'Death trick' on Adamantoise and get your TP up using Adamenchilde and other random enemies (eg. the King Behemoth fighting the othe monster near the caves). Ensure you get the Growth Egg using the Death, too, as this will double your CP and (with luck) get you to the point that you can start taking on Adamantortoise without needing TP/Death, at which point you should start to make some quick cash.

[Raistlin]

I havn't fought an adamantoise yet. Had my arse handed to me by an adamantortoise though. Where can i find the weaker versions?

The Adamantortoises are the weaker versions. They're still pretty damn strong.

What is your STR at on Fang? I always needed to stagger them to 350-400% before Highwinding them.

Any strength near or above 3000 should work, from what I remember. I've been able to simply Highwind a newly staggered leg for a while.

[Shin Gouken]

I havn't fought an adamantoise yet. Had my arse handed to me by an adamantortoise though. Where can i find the weaker versions?

The Adamantortoises are the weaker versions. They're still pretty damn strong.

What is your STR at on Fang? I always needed to stagger them to 350-400% before Highwinding them.

Any strength near or above 3000 should work, from what I remember. I've been able to simply Highwind a newly staggered leg for a while.

Perhaps it was an adamantoise... which are the ones guarding that area with the weaker adamanchilde? One of those stamped on my face =/

Gunna try this death trick on them tonight.

[Karifean]

The Adamantortoises are in the region with cactuar and many Adamanchelids. The Adamantoises wander around the Calm Lands and one can be found in Eden. Adamanchelids are damn weak, but then there are Shaolong Guis and Long Guis...

Oh, and I, too, always build up stagger a little before Highwinding.

Do you think it's more efficient if I keep killing Adamantortoises - haven't completed the circle-missions for the Guis yet - or switch to Adamantoises (especially in Eden)?

[Raistlin]

Depends on if you're gil farming or CP farming. For gil, I like the Adamantortoises are probably best as you can continually repeat Mission 63 (which automatically nets you a 60k gold nugget) and the two other Adamantortoises which are nearby. For CP, the Adamantoise in Eden is probably fastest because of the nearby save point.

I personally prefer the Adamantortoise location in the Steppe. Other people prefer Eden.

[Karifean]

I've just spent two and a half hours of farming the Adamantoise in Eden. I must say, you can respawn it quite quickly, and TP are definitely not an issue. Got 7 Platinum Ingots and a load of chips from the soldiers.

I've switched strategy, now using Sazh / Lightning / Fang with Sazh having his Low-HP-weapon equipped, all three with an Energy Sash and Fang with enough accessoires to get Hypermorph, while Lightning has the two catalogs and Double Egg.

Once the battle starts, I switch to SynSabCom and immediatly summon Brynhildur. Then I quickly cast Haste and Bravery on Sazh and then switch to Rav. Once the Adamantoise has 200%, I start using Cold Blood (Desperado). Once Brynhildur leaves (no Gestalt!), I switch back to SynSabCom and cast Haste + Bravery on Light and Fang. By then, Adamantoise is debuffed and I switch to RavRavCom. I use Cold Blood once, so the stagger bar is close to 999.9%. Then I finally switch to ComComCom and keep using Blitz with Sazh.

This way, the battles are quite short and TP fills up very quickly.

[No.78]

Any tips for killing Shaolong Guis?

Like... I don't know how to do it and I feel like a complete n00b.

[Loony BoB]

The main tip will always be: SEN/SEN/SEN for Ultima. The second you see him doing it, switch.

[Citizen Bleys]

I've been able to beat an Adamantoise before finishing the game. Everyone says that it's harder than Orphan, but that's utter nonsense. Orphan is pure luck, what with that "insta-kill the party leader randomly" move. I'm currently farming for gil to upgrade all my preparatory to going after Orphan.

No death trick necessary:

I can't remember the page I found the strat on, but it works: Take Sazh/Lightning/Vanille. Set a default paradigm with Sazh as a Synergist, and don't bother loading your decks with any medics, because if you get hit at all, you lose. Start by casting Bravery & Haste on Sazh, then summon. Switch Sazh to a SAB and auto-hinder for 2 rounds, then switch to RAV and use his Cold Blood or whatever the hell the last ability is called until Bryn goes away, then refresh buffs on Sazh and apply them to Fang; Go back to RAV until the Adamantoise is staggered, then switch to COM/COM/COM and spam 2xBlitz until it dies.

Found the guide: Watch Final Fantasy XIII - Low-spec Adamantoise battle via YouTube Online

I did this on the Adamantoise in Leviathan Plaza. Even after watching that video 8 billion times, I don't know how the hell that guy won, since I have my Crystarium maxed on the 3 main roles for all of my characters and a metric buttload of CP invested in secondary roles and I still need to use Fortisol and Aegisol in order to avoid the 'toise standing up with <10% health and one-shotting Sazh.

That's 40k CP and a chance at Traps & Plat Ingots even when I'm too weak to go after the CP egg or Orphan. You just got to spend a bunch of time regaining TP since it requires a summon.