History PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling / FinalFantasy

* Due to the way the world map is divided into enemy-containing quadrants, going as far north of Mount Ordeals as possible will allow you to encounter enemies from the area around Troia that, while able to slaughter you messily if you're not careful, also drop about 8 times the experience and gold than the enemies you're supposed to be encountering drop. You can also get Cat Claws from Cait Siths, a decent equip for Yang when you recruit him not much later, and Poison Arrows from Ettin Snakes if you arm your {{Squishy Wizard}}s with bows.

* Anyone interested in some simple SequenceBreaking can get to the Castle of Ordeals as soon as they reach Crescent Lake, and get some great experience (plus the first reuseable magic-casting items and a sword that's highly effective against nearly everything in the next major dungeon) and a class upgrade before fighting the Fiend of Fire.
* There is also the Hall of Giants, an area on the first floor of the Earth Cave in which every step is populated by giants. Great for later on, when the Peninsula Of Power and the Castle of Ordeals no longer give great experience awards.
* In early versions of the game the fight with The Eye in the Ice Cave was this, due to your ability to step one step away from where he spawns, step back, and fight him again ad nauseam. He had an instant death attack, but the chances of it succeeding were very low, he cast it infrequently, and after a certain point he died too fast for this to be an issue. Similar fights against elementals in the [[SchmuckBait usually empty side rooms]] and in front of certain chests also provided similar gains.

* There's also Lake Dohr and Bahamut's Lair, at least in the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoDS DS]] [[VideoGameRemake remake]]. Even better than the Undersea Cave, though you can't reach them until you get the third airship, the Invincible. Unfortunately, Lake Dohr can't be accessed after you defeat [[MakingASplash Leviathan]], however Bahamut's Lair remains open as long as you need it. [[NintendoHard You're going to need it.]]

* Due to the way the world map is divided into enemy-containing quadrants, going as far north of Mount Ordeals as possible will allow you to encounter enemies from the area around Troia that, while able to slaughter you messily if you're not careful, also drop about 8 times the experience and gold than the enemies you're supposed to be encountering drop. You can also get Cat Claws from panthers, a decent equip for Yang when you recruit him not much later, and Poison Arrows from pythons if you arm your {{Squishy Wizard}}s with bows.

* Dinosaur Forest, in the northern part of the World of Ruin, which contains the strongest enemies in the game. They give great experience (and the possibility to obtain a GameBreaker relic), provided you're able to survive multiple Meteor spells (and maybe even an [[TotalPartyKill Ultima spell]]!).
* And if you send one of your characters there alone with an Experience Egg, you can get over 17,000 XP (effectively gaining [[GameBreaker one level per enemy]]). However, this is only possible if you've got either the Master's Scroll or Soul of Thamasa relic (which allow you to attack/cast spells multiple times, respectively) equipped.
* This trick can also be combined with another trick mentioned below. While it won't net you as much EXP, the enemies around the Dinosaur Forest do net you a decent amount and equipping a character with the Experience Egg makes up the difference rather well. And, as an added bonus, staying on the grassy area means you only run into enemies that use physical attacks; getting the Vanish status on a character means you can grind for as long as you wish and never take any damage. While it's somewhat slower than using the forest, it is significantly safer.

* Later on in the Free Cities of Kanver (story mission "Evenfall"), you'll start off fighting some orcs on a narrow bridge, then fight some Akashic, and then a big battle with both in front of a large gate. Fight through these three battles (easy enough with the Ignition skill) and you'll get a boosted 288+124+700 AP for a total of 1,112; not bad at all for about 3 minutes of work. You can then fast travel to another waypoint to leave the stage and come back and repeat as many times as you wish before completing the stage. One can also revisit it in Stage Replay mode if they've already cleared it; though you won't get as big a reward from that, it's still substantial enough to be worthwhile.

* The basement of Bal Castle, and only one kind of enemy: Objet d'Art. They come in groups of two and five, and are vulnerable to the [[PowerCopying Blue Magic]] spell Level 5 Death. Groups of two give you 4 [=ABP=], while groups of five give you 8. This makes it the ideal grinding spot for Jobs for a good portion of the game. [=AND=] the castle has its own Inn and save point.

* Later on in the Free Cities of Kanver (story mission "Evenfall"), you'll start off fighting some orcs on a narrow bridge, then fight some Akashic, and then a big battle with both in front of a large gate. Fight through these three battles (easy enough with the Ignition skill) and you'll get a boosted 288+124+700 AP for a total of 1,112; not bad at all for 3-4 minutes of work. You can then fast travel to another waypoint to leave the stage and come back and repeat as many times as you wish before completing the stage. One can also revisit it in Stage Replay mode if they've already cleared it; though you won't get as big a reward from that, it's still substantial enough to be worthwhile.

* A bit later on in the Free Cities of Kanver (story mission "Evenfall"), you'll start off fighting some orcs on a narrow bridge, then fight some Akashic, and then a big battle with both in front of a large gate. Fight through these three battles and you'll get a boosted 288+124+700 AP for a total of 1,112; not bad at all for 4-5 minutes of work. You can then fast travel to another waypoint to leave the stage and come back and repeat as many times as you wish before completing the stage. One can also revisit it in Stage Replay mode if they've already cleared it; though you won't get as big a reward from that, it's still substantial enough to be worthwhile.

* A bit later on in the Free Cities of Kanver stage (story mission "Evenfall"), you'll start off fighting some orcs on a narrow bridge, then fight some Akashic, and then a big battle with both in front of a large gate. Fight through these three battles and you'll get a boosted 288+124+700 AP for a total of 1,112. You can then fast travel to another waypoint to leave the stage and come back and repeat as many times as you wish before completing the stage. One can also revisit it in Stage Replay mode if they've already cleared it; though you won't get as big a reward from that, it's still substantial enough to be worthwhile.

* The game largely clamps down on level farming strategies, as the overwhelming majority of your Experience, AP and Gil gains are gained through story battles and scripted sidequests. One did manage to sneak in, however - if you go to the Royal Meadows of northeastern Sanbreque, you'll find four blue chocobos called Bluebirds. Defeating them earns you a pretty hefty pile of AP (40 base, 48 with the Wages of Warcraft accessory equipped) and the 2-3 brown chocobos they're with add another 8 or 9 each on top of that, which equals 291 AP per trip, give or take. They also frequently drop Black Bloods, which sell for 400 Gil a pop. Fast-travelling to the Royal Meadows obelisk makes them all reset too, so you can use this to boost your Eikonic skills and earn cash very efficiently.

* The game largely clamps down on level farming strategies, as the overwhelming majority of your Experience, AP and Gil gains are gained through story battles and scripted sidequests. One did manage to sneak in, however - if you go to the Royal Meadows of northeastern Sanbreque, you'll find four blue chocobos called Bluebirds. Defeating them earns you a pretty hefty pile of AP (40 base, 48 with the Wages of Warcraft accessory equipped) and the 2-3 brown chocobos they're with add another 8 or 9 on top of that, which equals around 290 AP per trip. They also frequently drop Black Bloods, which sell for 400 Gil a pop. Fast-travelling to the Royal Meadows obelisk makes them all reset too, so you can use this to boost your Eikonic skills and earn cash very efficiently.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfFinalFantasy'' has an early game one in the Secret Caverns in the Nether Nebula, the first real dungeon. To access it, you'll need [[{{Mons}} Mirages]] with the Flutter and Smash abilities. Conveniently, two such Mirages can be found in the cave, though they'll need training first; Floating Eye is easy enough to capture and learn Flutter on, though you'll have to get a Copper Gnome to Level 10 and change it into a Mythril Gnome to learn Smash, which takes a little time. If you can manage to survive an encounter or two in there, your levels will shoot up, and you can easily leave the place at level 20 or above--much higher than the story expects for a while. Sylph is a good choice here, as most enemies in the area are weak to wind magic and she gets a very handy spell called "Whisperwind" that does wind damage and restores HP to the user equal to the amount of damage dealt.

* The game largely clamps down on level farming strategies, as the overwhelming majority of your Experience, AP and Gil gains are gained through story battles and scripted sidequests. One did manage to sneak in, however - if you go to the Royal Meadows of northeastern Sanbreque, you'll find four blue chocobos called Bluebirds. Defeating them earns you a pretty hefty pile of AP (40 base, 48 with the Wages of Warcraft accessory equipped) and the 2-3 brown chocobos they're with add another 8 or 9 on top of that, which equals around 300 AP per trip. They also frequently drop Black Bloods, which sell for 400 Gil a pop. Fast-travelling to the Royal Meadows obelisk makes them all reset too, so you can use this to boost your Eikonic skills and earn cash very efficiently.

* The game largely clamps down on level farming strategies, as the overwhelming majority of your experience, AP and gold gains are gained through story battles and scripted sidequests. One did manage to sneak in, however - if you go to the Royal Meadows of northeastern Sanbreque, you'll find four blue chocobos called Bluebirds running around. Defeating them and the groups of brown chocobos they're with earns you a pretty hefty pile of AP (64 base, 76 with the Wages of Warcraft accessory equipped), which equals around 300 AP every 2-3 minutes. Fast-travelling to the Royal Meadows obelisk makes them all reset, so you can use this to boost your Eikonic skills pretty efficiently.

* The game largely clamps down on level farming strategies, as the overwhelming majority of your experience, AP and gold gains are gained through story battles and scripted sidequests. One did manage to sneak in, however - if you go to the Royal Meadows of northeastern Sanbreque, you'll find four blue chocobos called Bluebirds running around. Defeating them and the groups of brown chocobos they're with earns you a pretty hefty pile of AP (64 base, 72 with the Wages of Warcraft accessory equipped), which means just under 300 AP every 2-3 minutes. Fast-travelling to the Royal Meadows obelisk makes them all reset, so you can use this to boost your Eikonic skills pretty efficiently.

* The game largely clamps down on level farming strategies, as the overwhelming majority of your experience, AP and gold gains are gained through story battles and scripted sidequests. One did manage to sneak in, however - if you go to the Royal Meadows of northeastern Sanbreque, you'll find four blue chocobos called Bluebirds running around. Defeating them and the groups of brown chocobos they're with earns you a pretty hefty pile of AP (64 base, 72 with the Wages of Warcraft accessory equipped), which means about 150 AP every 2-3 minutes. Fast-travelling to the Royal Meadows obelisk makes them all reset, so you can use this to boost your Eikonic skills pretty efficiently.

* The TropeNamer is the FanNickname for a peninsula north of Pravoka - originally a GoodBadBug where a few squares accidentally held the data for the wrong area of monsters, but it quickly became popular due to its potential for massive experience early on. All rereleases have [[AscendedGlitch kept said bug]]...except for the ''Pixel Remaster'' version.

* The Monster Arena, where repeatedly fighting certain monsters allows you to both optimize and re-traverse the Sphere Grid to make your characters strong enough to stand a chance against the [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]].

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfFinalFantasy'' has an early game one in the Secret Caverns in the Nether Nebula, the first real dungeon. To access it, you'll need [[{{Mons}} Mirages]] with the Flutter and Smash abilities. Conveniently, two such Mirages can be found in the cave, though they'll need training first; Floating Eye is easy enough to capture and learn Flutter on, though you'll have to get a Copper Gnome to Level 10 and change it into a Mythril Gnome to learn Smash, which takes a little time. If you can manage to survive an encounter or two in there, your levels will shoot up, and you can easily leave the place at level 20 or above--much higher than the story expects for a while.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfFinalFantasy'' has an early game one in the Secret Caverns in the Nether Nebula, the first real dungeon. To access it, you'll need [[{{Mons}} Mirages]] with the Flutter and Smash abilities. Conveniently, two such Mirages can be found in the cave, though they'll need training first. If you can manage to survive an encounter or two in there, your levels will shoot up, and you can easily leave the place at level 20 or above--much higher than the story expects for a while.