Advice on gil funds and shortages

[ValiantKnight]

Searched a bit but didnt see anything for earlier in the game.

I am currently at the temple whose name I can't remember or spell in the desert passed the sandsea that had a small avion bird guarding it.

3 characters have 1 quickening each at this point, and most of the license board is doing fairly fine I think. So far XII reminds me quite a lot of Dragon Quest 8 in terms of severe lack of funds vs overleveling.

I have mostly new equipment, and all the spells bought, but there is a merchant who appears after you defeat the bird outside the temple that has some new equipment that looks nice.

I'm not having any trouble with any of the enemies around here, aside from marks being a little lengthy... a certain wyvern.

However keeping in the newest clothes at each stop in the story is putting an incredible strain on the wallet. And I'm afraid that trying to finance new spells/clothes keeps me overleveled and destroys the challenge.

I'm already in my low 20s/high 10s, which by the ease of which everything in the sandsea was falling, I'm sure is too high for here. I've tried chaining 50+ chains of skeletons in the mines, but that shoots the levels up very fast. Also recently tried chaining the bird monsters here in sandsea for bent staffs, but they seem to drop it too rarely to moderately efficient.

The staffs sell for 1100, and would be a good boost if they were a bit more common.
Aside from going back to the beginning and chaining wolves for hours for 35x99 gil on wolf pelts for about the experience of one skeleton in the mines... are there any other nice places to nab gil without shooting levels up?

I don't really mind being overleveled I guess, and maybe 20 is normal for here. Just the basic concern that gil is extremely rare in this game.

Yes I'm using Foe = 100% > Steal on Vaan
Yes I'm chaining as best I can to get more items.

If this was asked elsewhere, forgive me, didn't see any topics related to early game in the searches, and I haven't progressed that far in 3 days of playing.

[Lawr]

Lol. I restarted my file and I'm a little bit ahead of you! (SPOILER)Henne Mines.

Make sure you don't waste all of your money before you are about to go to the west-most section of the map. Once you have activated a red switch and agreen switch, then you return to Dyce and buy what you want/need/can. It helped me out.(I won't mention specifically because of the variations you can have on your characters.)

Here is a hint, If you buy things, try to see and check if you can survive the dungeon, you won't always need the best equipment to beat a dungeon.

[Ogrius]

Kill the little red guys, god I cant remember the name of them for the life of me, back in the first couple of screens of the sandsea. They drop succulent fruits which are worth abour 300ish a piece and they drop them a lot and you can steal them a lot, one trip there and spend about 20 minutes and you shoul dbe able to buy anything you want. The biggest thing is to make sure you steal from EVERYTHING, that should help keep your funds up.

[Timerk]

There is an accessory called Firefly which keeps you from earning EXP, try equipping one or two of those when you are farming for Gil.

[leader of mortals]

I never steal and i still get good money. All you have to do is fight every single thing you go by(within your level range that is). Lhusu mines are great for money too.

[zeonmx]

kill worgen and they drop those wolf blood. Those rootings cost worth some high amount of money. I only had 14 of them and sold for about 12000

[Renmiri]

kill worgen and they drop those wolf blood. Those rootings cost worth some high amount of money. I only had 14 of them and sold for about 12000

Worgen is way past Henne mines at Mosphorian Highwaste!

K, to get gil early in the game:
A) Lhusu Mines, floating city of Bhujerba - Skeletons drop 199 gil Bone fragments, almost every time, 40 or more if you keep running back ad forth n the last 2 stretches before you go up the stairs on the last chamber. 50 x 199 = kaching!

Use the money made on A to buy all the books / Grimoires you see on the Bazaar. They increase the odds of you getting rare items dropped.

B) Nam Yensa Sandsea, 3 last areas close to the tomb of raythwall (the temple guarded by a bird you referred ). Kill the blue turkeys (Axelbeak) they drop Raimbow eggs at 500 gill a pop but it is a rare drop, you have to try to chain them. There's an area northeast of the tomb - Simoon's Bluff - that is full of a armored urstrix (Bagoly). Their rare drop is "Bent Staff" at 1100 gil If you bought all the books on the bazaar you should get at least 5-6 per trip to the area. If not, try to chain them and you might get 2 or 3 per turn.

C) Golmore Jungle, before you finish Henne mines and open the passage to Mt. Bur-Omisace: Chain Coeurl to get coeurl pelts, Marlboro to get Marlboro vine and Gargoyles to get Demon eyes. save often, heal often. There's a freakish dog / wolf there that tend to gang up on your party and make you get game over before you get to sell any loot

[zeonmx]

I killed worgens at lvl 22...

[ValiantKnight]

Fast foward, and B party is 23-25, while A party is 31-32.
Killed all hunts so far except for two in the waterway, and one in zertinan(sp?) caverns... for obvious reasons.

I'll probably take B party back to the mines and chain skeletons for a bit, but will also try the jungle. Got to the Mount and now I'm supposed to be heading to stillshrines of miriam(probably didn't spell that right).

Well looked at the stuff for sell on the mountain and it all looks nice.. but I didn't buy the last new set of armor when it came available, and I'm out of money after buying spells and a pair of thief cuffs.

Have all the spells so far(finally someone sells fira/thundara/blizzara... why it took so long I don't know..), and a few grimroires.

(SPOILER)Ring Wyrm was fun but exhaustingly long to kill. Gil Snapper got way too strong once he hit critical, and after the party started dying too fast to keep the damage going, I had to bring in B team for a quickening chain to finish him

Got two decent swords, Demonsbane, and an Ice Brand.
No real problem killing anthing so far, just staying alive is a little rougher up here on the mountain.... perhaps the armor would help since I'm still in armor bought from outside the Tomb.

More skeleton chaining and possibly jungle chaining I guess.

Also, does anyone else experience slow frame rates/lag around hellhounds in groups of 4-5.. with all their shiney and glowy effects. A little worried my PS2 may be getting old, as it also would do similar in Dragon Quest 8 when I would fight 6+ enemies at a time in some areas.

[Renmiri]

Got the same around hellhounds.

You may be at a good level to take a detour to the Feywood before you get to Mirian. Tons of good loot to be had

But save first, there's a rough crowd of mandragoras there

[ValiantKnight]

Well I had detoured to the feywood once already before heading to the mount.

I ran in.... 3 little cute things come up and start to attack. I'm not sure if I had protect on or not, but they were hitting upwards of 400+ and fast.

Ok... I've faced things almost as rough I think, and stay for a few seconds, til the status effects from something started rolling in.. and disabling half my party, while the other half got triple teamed and Vaan goes down, and Basch runs fast as he can while the guest dies and Penelo sits there sleeping.

[Renmiri]

Stillshrine has good loot too so if Feywood is too hard for you just go to the stillshrine and stay running around there till you are at the same level as Larsa.

Matching the level of your guest is a good rule of thumb

[ValiantKnight]

But he dies alot..

Up to riskbreaker I think now on clan rank.
Did a few hunts, the blobs in the sewers... they were rough without gambits and strategy... but Fira and in one of them's case.. Reflect, helped immensely.

(SPOILER)Beat the Earth Tyrant in northern westerlands, explored a little of the area after him, morsomething highsomething.. name is hard to remember/pronounce. Nice cameo of Biggs and Wedge(letters switched around) at the Nalbina entrance to there. I came out and little scene with both of them.. How.... how you come across with so many beasts?

B party is 28, A party is 31. All have armor from the mountain....

(SPOILER)Giza Plains still isn't dry. Entertaining the idea of going after Marylith(sp?) in zertinan, but not sure how far I'd get. Also accepted the antilon hunt and would imagine he's rough, but the npc seems like its time sensative. Bravery, Faith, Bubble, and Bubble belts are nice, but even more money to get for them.

And the Panthers in the jungle were really nice. 10+ of them, a short zone connecting it to ozmone, for quick resets of panthers, and the pelt is their common drop, really faster than skeletons, and 60-100% more money. Hope theres more nice places like that when the armor starts costing 20,000..

**
All pre-stillshrine hunts completed at least that I know of that I can get. B party now 30, A party 32
(SPOILER)Thought i'd go in there real smug with bravery, faith, bubble belts and kill the antlion..... yeah erm yeah. He hit hard, but slow gambits held him down and charge got just enough MP to keep healing, so until 10%, theres no problem, then he starts going a little faster at 10%, and starts killing folks, then slow wears off, and 3 out of 4 instantly die. I kinda quickly reset all the raise gambits to phoenix downs... and pulled ashe in to try a quickening.. the antlion killed her though. So my main party of Vaan, Basch, and Penelo all died save Penelo who got switched out. I bring in the remaining three, and since he's at 9% and slow was wearing soon.... I decided to go the quickening route /shame. Well the mist charges they don't like me and it only got 6 hits(all my characters only have 1 quickening each so far). So it hits for a good bit of damage, and I can't see anymore of his life bar, so I switch the gladius off Basch and Vaan to Balthier and Fran, and attack... He kills Penelo and has Balthier, who borrowed the shielded armor from basch, down to 150 life when fran stabs him one last time for 500.. and he rolls over dead. Yay! What an insane hunt. And I love Basch tanking it with bravery, bubble belt, shielded armor(auto protect), and doing a fine job for 85% of the mark's life. Warp helped in the beginning when pulling then sending its babies away... but it did consume one of the babies and grew stronger...

[Renmiri]

Mosphoran Highwaste is choc full of monsters with good loot. The wolves drop "throat wolve's blood" at $1,200 a drop, the slavens drop $1,000+ items too, the Humbababa too explore around there, run back to save & sell, do it a couple of times and you will be set for the next 5-6 missions

PS: Go back to Rabanastre and go to Mushu's Bazaar. Being Riskbreaker will let you buy good Techniques and spells at the clan shop there. Then get on an airship, "leisure" mode and visit the shops on the observation deck. Buy Syphon

[Dynast-Kid]

Mosphoran Highwaste is choc full of monsters with good loot. The wolves drop "throat wolve's blood" at $1,200 a drop, the slavens drop $1,000+ items too, the Humbababa too explore around there, run back to save & sell, do it a couple of times and you will be set for the next 5-6 missions

PS: Go back to Rabanastre and go to Mushu's Bazaar. Being Riskbreaker will let you buy good Techniques and spells at the clan shop there. Then get on an airship, "leisure" mode and visit the shops on the observation deck. Buy Syphon

And when you go to Muthru Bazaar, try to pick up the accessory, Nihopalaoa. It's amazing. But it's quite expensive (30,000 gil), so you'd better get a bunch of loot to sell.