How do I not level up

[SeeDRankLou]

Why do you not want to level up? Unless you're going for a low-level run through, there's no point in holding back on levelling; the monsters will beat on you just as badly as they will later in the game.

As you level up, the monsters level up. But monsters receive an exponetially higher stat increase as they level up than the characters do, and thus it is an advantage to stay at low levels.

To not level up at all is a tad difficult, but very doable. Running is a good tactic to not level up, but running in this game lowers you SeeD Rank, so it's a detriment. So, the easiest (and easy) way to not level up is to Card. In the beginning, set Quezacotl to learn Card and run from all battle before the Dollet exam, not before getting magic. You should take ShaunOfShadou's advice about playing cards and collecting a lot of them and when you learn Card Mod turning them into cards. To make that process go faster, when you get a few good cards go to Balamb and play cards with the Queen of Cards. She will start changing up the trade rules. Once you see her use All a few times, go to someone else in Balamb and play cards with them. If they don't use the All rule, cancel the card game and play again. Once this person uses the All rule, beat that person and the All rule should stay with you for most of the game. Anyway, that will speed up collecting cards, and play Zell's mom for higher level cards. So, once you get to Dollet and start battling, kill Squall and Zell and let Seifer fight the Galbadian troops until you learn Card. Don't go past the bridge until you're done. And if you want, you can set Quezacotl to learn Card Mod after that and stay on the bridge and learn that as well, that should put you over the necessary kills to get a 100 in that department too, but it's not necessary. Once you learn Card, put it on the character and don't take it off except for boss fights. Card everything from this point on. If you run into soldiers in Dollet after the Anacandaur fight, kill Squall and let Zell and Selphie fight them, beat them with a GF (running in Dollet will lower your exam grade). You won't run into enough to level up. Be sure to revive Squall before going to the lift. Ok, so before you go to Timber, get Diablos and learn St-Mag RF. Card Mod a Cockatrice card or two and St-Mag RF the Cockatrice Pinion for 20 Breaks. Use these against any human enemy normal fight. The only human enemies that won't petrify (well they will, but there's a 1% chance) is the Galbadian Cyborg. You won't run into many of those in the second dream, so just run from them. GIM52As in the D-District Prison also don't petrify, run from them too. As a general rule about human and GIM52A fights, if the screen blurs to the side, that's a fight in which EXP will be gained. If the screen splits into fourths and blurs into the center of each, no EXP will be gained. Finally, when you get control of the Garden, before the Garden battle get Tonberry but don't get Odin. To do this, go to the Centra Ruins and fight Tonberries until you don't have much time left. Leave and go back, the time will reset but your Tonberry count won't. Keep a count, and when you get to about 18, save, because you're about to fight Tonberry King and you'll need a decent amount of time for that, you don't want to be left with like two minutes to fight it. During the Laguna dream where you meet Dr. Odine, use Lv Down on the Galbadian Cyborgs to get them to level one so that you only get five or six EXP. That should do you.