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- Easiest Way to Level Up Fast in Star Ocean: The Second Story R Explained
- Step 1: Upgrade the Scouting Skill
- Step 2: Unlock Train for Every Party Member
- Step 3: Use the Free Fight Party Formation
- Step 4: Head to Any Grind Spot Like Lagsus Mountain
- Step 5: Chain Enemies Together
- How to Get Powerful Equipment Early
- FAQs
- Check Out Where to Find All Fish Next
Star Ocean: The Second Story R may be a remake of a classic JRPG, but it has some modern elements to it. This includes various features and items that you can use to take advantage of the gameplay systems and level up quickly early on. While there are multiple ways and places to grind in this game, this is the best way to level up fast in Star Ocean: The Second Story R.
This method involves several steps, which players must prepare for quite well before the actual XP grinding process. However, the best part is it can be done only a few hours into the game once you reach a certain point in the main story, and it will set you up for the rest of your entire adventure. Here’s everything you need to know about how to level up fast in Star Ocean: The Second Story R.
There are many ways to level up fast in Star Ocean: The Second Story R, but the best way to do it for players of all levels in the game is to use a few of the different skills you can learn and equip on the party members. With a mix of skills like Train and Scout, players are able to string together massive chains of enemies, such as five battles in a row.
If you do these in the right places and with the proper formations, you can get up to 10 times the usual XP you would normally get from regular battles. This allows you to get dozens of levels in the game for all party members in a matter of moments. Doing this in the first few hours of the game is even possible.
Easiest Way to Level Up Fast in Star Ocean: The Second Story R Explained
There are lots of methods for how to grind XP in Star Ocean: The Second Story R, but I have a favorite one, which I have personally used in the game. This method involves five quick and easy steps, which you can all do pretty much as soon as you get to Krosse City and speak with the king.
Five main steps are involved with setting up this level grind method and using it. I find that players can get dozens of levels in under an hour. It is even possible to reach level 50 or higher in less than two hours, which is unbelievable since you should be no more than level 20 at this point in the game, and even that is a stretch. Here is how to level up fast in Star Ocean: The Second Story R.
Step 1: Upgrade the Scouting Skill
It all begins with the Scouting skill in Star Ocean: The Second Story R. How this skill works is you are able to reduce or increase the number of encounters you have with monsters in the world and in dungeons. The goal here is to use this to increase your encounter rates so you can chain together massive groups of enemies for the utmost experience boost.
To do this, you need first to unlock the Scouting skill on at least one of the party members. You can do that by getting at least one point in the following IC and Specialty Skill:
- Danger Radar
You can increase this skill even further if you want to upgrade it. This increases the chances of coming across more enemy encounters but is optional. Once you have at least one point in Danger Radar, head to the IC/Specialty screen, pick Specialty, and then look for Scouting there.
Turn on Scouting for one of your party members and choose to “look for enemies.” This will increase the frequency of battles, which I will discuss a bit more down below.
Step 2: Unlock Train for Every Party Member
Once you have Scouting on at least one of your active party members, it is now time to focus on the next skill you need for this method: Train. Train is a pretty particular and risky skill, but it is so worth it for the XP grind you can get from it. Train lowers one’s general stats, such as attack, in exchange for a boost to the XP they get in battle.
To unlock Train for your party members, you need them to get at least one point in not one, not two, but a whopping three different skills:
- Determination: This skill lowers the overall SP you need to use to pull off various skills in battle.
- Resilience: This gives the character two more defense points per level, which is quite good.
- Effort: This skill generally lowers the amount of experience you need to level up with each point.
Once a party member has at least one point in all three of those skills, you can then head to the Specialty screen and turn on Train for them. You want to do this for all of your party members, though, so they all benefit from the extra XP you get from this.
Now, the catch with Train is it lowers the party members’ attack, defense, and intelligence by a few points. This means you’ll land weaker hits and take more damage. This means the first few chain battles you may do might be a bit rough at first, but it will get much easier the more you grind this all out and level up faster.
Step 3: Use the Free Fight Party Formation
The third step has to do with the party formation you use in the game. In this case, you want to use the Free Fight party formation. It is the most lucrative when it comes to grinding for XP in this game. Once you have this party formation unlocked, head to the Tactics screen in the main menu and then navigate down to the Formation tab.
From there, you can switch the formation to Free Fight, which is the one you want for this strategy. It offers a bonus experience just for having the characters in this formation. Each formation offers various bonuses, such as higher defense, but this is the one we want since it will boost the overall XP we get from everything.
How to Unlock Free Fight
Unfortunately, the Free Fight formation is not one of the default formations you get in Star Ocean: The Second Story R. You can unlock it by completing one of the Guild missions known as Customization Mission 2. This is a pretty simple mission you can get quite early in the game as soon as you reach Krosse City and unlock the Guild missions.
All you need to do is unlock the Customization skill first. This requires one party member to have points in the following skills:
- Eye for Detail
- Smithing
- Aesthetic Design
However, in this case, we need a flaming long sword to complete the quest, so make sure to unlock it on Claude. Once you have Customization, you then want to mix a long sword weapon with a ruby material (which the Guild gives you for free) to make the Flame Sword+. Save the game beforehand, as it has a 90% success rate.
Head back to the Guild in any city to turn in the request and earn 50 BP plus the Wealth formation manual. This unlocks the Free Fight Formation, which gives bonus experience and FOL at certain milestones.
Step 4: Head to Any Grind Spot Like Lagsus Mountain
Once you have all of these elements unlocked in the game, it is time to start chaining. You can head to any location you want in the game, so long as it has a ton of enemies and a save point nearby for healing. That said, if you are near the start of the game or even in the middle, the best spot is Lagsus Mountain.
This is an optional dungeon area near Krosse City, so, again, you can access it pretty early into the game. While you can do this grind method anywhere on the mountain, your best bet is to make it to the save point near the peak of the mountain. This is the best spot for what we are going to do for this level-up method.
Step 5: Chain Enemies Together
Finally, it is time to start the grind. Once you have your formation, Train skills, and everything else, you want to save at the save point near the peak of the mountain. Here, you want to activate the chain enemies skill, so you will basically be getting fight after fight right near the save point.
This will let you chain together enemies with ease and get the bonuses from that. In addition, you will have the existing bonuses from methods like the Free Fight Formation. With all of this together, you will likely get exponentially more experience for every single fight than you would normally.
It is possible to level up dozens of times in a single hour if you use this method. You can even reach level 50 in about two hours right from the start of the game in this early area on the world map. It gets even easier for you as you level up since the monsters will be easier to take out and chain together. This is a fantastic way to be ready for the mid to even late-game sections right from the beginning of the game.
How to Get Powerful Equipment Early
What I will say is if you are under-leveled at the beginning of this level-up method, some of these monsters and chains will be pretty hard. While the nearby save point means you will be healed up easily, you might want some powerful equipment early on to help with this method.
What I recommend is to head to the treasure chest on the world map near the Dawn-Life Cascades, which is a landmark right southeast of Kurik. This chest gives you a Benefaction Card, which grants you a random item. Save the game before using it, and then keep reloading until you get a highly powerful weapon like the Sword of Marvels to make the early chaining easy until you level up enough.
FAQs
Check Out Where to Find All Fish Next
Star Ocean The Second Story R is one of the best modern remakes in a long time and one of the best JRPGs of all time. However, it has its fair share of challenges for players, especially if you want to 100% complete the game. That is why it is so important you follow the five steps above to level up the fastest you possibly can in the game.
Once you are ready to go with the levels for the party members you want, it is time to move on to other things in the game. For instance, you may want to check out where to find the various fish in Star Ocean The Second Story R next so you can complete your fish encyclopedia from start to finish.
Continue reading:
Star Ocean The Second Story R Fish Encyclopedia Guide