[Guide] Getting Your Characters to Lv 99 Easily

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Celes
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[Guide] Getting Your Characters to Lv 99 Easily

Post by Celes »

Since this is one of the most frequently asked questions, I like to explain how to get all your characters up to lv 99 as fast as possible. First of all, you should be aware of the drastically reduced stat growth beyond lv 59 (look at the Stat Growth Charts for further details), so this might be only interesting due to perfectionistic motives, the joy of level building or the level bonuses received in S2 for returning characters.

Is there a level 99 boost trick, like the one in S2?
No, there isn't.

The maximum jump you can accomplish, is from lv 36 up to lv 96, which is almost as good as the trick in S2. But this works only for characters who can equip a fortune rune or McDohl alone.

Fight a group of 2x Elite Soldier (lv 52), 1x Whip Master (lv 51) and 3x Hell Hound (lv 50) at Moravia Castle with a two-man party. The char you want to boost must be at lv 36 with at least 900 additional exp and must have a fortune rune attached. It doesn't matter if McDohl is alive at the end of the battle or not.

How is experience calculated?
Unlike S2, exp is divided among all characters in battle, not only among the living ones. You can get a max of 10.000 exp per enemy, if it is at least 15 lv superior than you (thanks to Reinbach_III for figuring this out!). With a group of 6 enemies, the max is obviously 60.000. Divided by 2 (McDohl + char x) and you'll gain still 30.000, which can be doubled again with the fortune rune up to 60.000. Of course, McDohl alone receives 60.000 exp without the help of the rune.

6 targets with max exp: 6 x 10.000
devided by party size (McDohl + x): 60.000 / 2
with fortune rune: 30.000 x 2 = 60.000

If your lv is higher than 35, you won't receive max exp due to the enemies lv. At lv 36 you will get at least 59.100 exp out of this combination and this is the very maximum. In Shasarazade, there are no groups of 6 enemies at all. As soon as you can re-enter Gregminster, you are forced to travel with a party size of at least three, so it won't work either. And any area before Moravia gives not enough exp, due to the enemies lv.

Lv 99 recruitment
Some chars will even join you at lv 99, since their starting level is based on McDohls (look here for a complete list). You may keep McDohl at lv 1 in order to recruit Sheena and Kuromimi at lv 99, but since it's quite difficult to get past Kwanda at this level (still not impossible), you can simply boost McDohl up to 96 with the trick described above, train the remaining three levels, and recruit the optional chars with variable levels afterwards.

Characters whos lv is based on McDohl's will benefit if he is already at a high lv:
Blackman (+3), Flik (+4, auto-joins), Fu Su Lu (+4), Gon (-4), Kage (+5), Kirke (-2), Kuromimi (-1, auto-joins), Milia (+2, auto-joins), Rubi (+4), Sarah (-3), Sheena (-1), Valeria (+3, auto-joins)

While this is interesting for Sheena with his fixed rune, you can't do much about Valeria at this point. All the others have free rune slots anyway.

And the rest...?
This leaves some poor souls, who join either at a lv beyond 36, or have fixed runes equipped which make them unable to perform the trick.


Characters and their best way for level building
Lv 96 boost trick
McDohl, Antonio, Camille, Cleo, Eileen, Flik, Futch, Gen, Gremio, Grifftih, Humphrey, Kamandol, Kessler, Kimberly, Kirkis, Krin, Kuromimi (can be recruited at lv 1 easily, too), Kwanda, Leonardo, Lepant, Lester, Liukan, Lorelai, Lotte, Luc, Maas, Meese, Meg, Milia, Milich, Mina, Moose, Morgan, Mose, Quincy, Sansuke, Sergei, Sydonia, Sylvina, Tai Ho, Varkas, Viktor, Yam Koo

Lv 96 boost trick OR recruit at lv 99
Blackman, Fu Su Lu, Gon, Kage, Kirke, Rubi, Sarah

Recruit at lv 1 or 99
Sheena

Recruit at lv 99
Valeria (quite difficult and not worth the effort at this point of the story)

Characters who can be boosted still to a decent level at Moravia, due to their starting lv (earn 900 exp in each case before using the trick)
Fuma (95), Kanak (95), Hix (94), Warren (91), Anji (91), Kreutz (91), Tengaar (87)

Characters who can be boosted a bit, at Shazarazade. Fight a group with 4x Elite Soldier (earn 900 exp in each case before using the trick)
Mace (75), Kasim (75), Clive (71), Eikei (71), Sonya (69), Pesmerga (69), Crowley (60, quite useless...)

Characters left, you have to train the hard way
Alen, Fukien, Grenseal, Hellion, Juppo, Kai, Kasumi, Pahn, Ronnie, Stallion

After all, you can use the time to farm some useful equipment or rare runes =)


Enjoy!
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Re: Getting your characters to Lv 99 easily

Post by KFCrispy »

another great contribution!
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Re: Getting your characters to Lv 99 easily

Post by highwind44029 »

Oh, my dear Ronnie Bell was left out in the cold. D=

Luc and Fu Su Lu would be BROKEN at Level 99.

This is a very great contribution, Celes. Thanks! You rock!!!
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Re: Getting your characters to Lv 99 easily

Post by Soul Eater »

This is much better than a similar thread I posted which takes people to around lvl 80. On my last save I got people to level 99 the hard way and killed my old playstation in the process!
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Celes
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Re: Getting your characters to Lv 99 easily

Post by Celes »

Actually, HP is not capped at 999, as the Stat Growth Charts lists it. Four characters can break the 3-digit limit, which is unique in the suikoden history so far:

Max HP at Lv 99:
Fu Su Lu (944-1100)
Kasim (822-1018)
Pahn (824-1020)
Pesmerga (940-1096)

While this happens most unlikely for Pahn and Kasim, you will have a good chance to accomplish this with the other two. However, the game will have some problems displaying it in proper style, although calculated right.

For example, 1044 HP are shown as:
044 in the menu and in battle, and
44 on the table of stars.
At least the character selection screen shows the correct number up to 4 digits.


celes
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Re: Getting your characters to Lv 99 easily

Post by Soul Eater »

On all my saves I don't think I've ever had Fu Su Lu or Pesmerga with under 1000 hp. Also, Pahn has only had > 999 a few times, he was mostly below. Never seen Kasim with over 999.

Does this suggest that when the stats increase within a set range, e.g. 3-5 that the chance of certain values is higher, e.g. level ups could be 4,4,3,5,4,3,4,4,5,4 so the midpoint is much more likely?
gradeAbra
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Re: Getting your characters to Lv 99 easily

Post by gradeAbra »

Well this shall prove it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_uctXpa ... re=related

I am going to try this out tomorrow on my new game. Sweet!
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Re: Getting your characters to Lv 99 easily

Post by gradeAbra »

For character that cannot equip fortune rune but join at lower than lv36 i can kill McDohl and let them survive the Moravia battle alone to achieve lv96.
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Re: Getting your characters to Lv 99 easily

Post by gradeAbra »

And also how do you get pass the Ninja that attack Tir in the HQ?? He will boost your EXP..
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Re: Getting your characters to Lv 99 easily

Post by KFCrispy »

you can use bribe trick. the toughest parts will be the duels.
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Re: Getting your characters to Lv 99 easily

Post by gradeAbra »

You mean i need to do the Bribe trick to get pass the leveling up? When will the assassin attack Tir? I forgotten which part.
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Re: Getting your characters to Lv 99 easily

Post by Celes »

Soul Eater wrote:On all my saves I don't think I've ever had Fu Su Lu or Pesmerga with under 1000 hp. Also, Pahn has only had > 999 a few times, he was mostly below.
How many times did you train Pahn to the max lv, actually? It takes ages to do so, and getting him beyond 999 HP is only possible in theory.....
gradeAbra wrote:For character that cannot equip fortune rune but join at lower than lv36 i can kill McDohl and let them survive the Moravia battle alone to achieve lv96.
Like I said before, that won't work.
"Unlike S2, exp is divided by all characters in battle, not only the living ones."
gradeAbra wrote:And also how do you get pass the Ninja that attack Tir in the HQ?? He will boost your EXP..
This is an optional battle. You can lose it - or even start dead - and the game continues.
KFCrispy wrote:the toughest parts will be the duels.
Only if you want to keep McDohl at level 1, which is not really necessary. Sheena can be recruited before the duels, and there is no character that requires McDohl lv 1 for easy level build (see above).
However, if you do want to keep McDohl at lv 1 the only problem is Kwanda. You have to worry about his (normal) "Attack", as it is the only command when you cannot avoid damage at all. If you are lucky, you can pass the battle with him only attacking once (doing defense and desperate attack all the other time). With 17 HP, his attack may hit you for 16 dmg max.
  • sharp your weapon to lv 9 at dwarves
  • equip Pointed hat, Magic robe and 2x Mangosh (or 2x Feather in fact that Magosh is very rare and they are almost as good) for the best defense at this point
  • embed the wind rune piece for additional defense if you like
  • farm around 40 defense rune pieces at mt. tigerwolf or toran basement, but plan ahead, because both areas cannot re-entered by that time (or use the stat stone trick)

celes
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Re: Getting your characters to Lv 99 easily

Post by gradeAbra »

CelesDestiny so the best time for this power leveling is when McDohl is alone in Moravia? How did you do this trick for Victor and Flik? They are require for certain story event. Its not easy to avoid leveling them.
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Re: Getting your characters to Lv 99 easily

Post by Soul Eater »

CelesDestiny wrote:
Soul Eater wrote:On all my saves I don't think I've ever had Fu Su Lu or Pesmerga with under 1000 hp. Also, Pahn has only had > 999 a few times, he was mostly below.
How many times did you train Pahn to the max lv, actually? It takes ages to do so, and getting him beyond 999 HP is only possible in theory.....

celes
Four times, I think. I have played Suikoden way too much... several thousand hours I should think.

Most of the time I was just trying to farm status raising rune pieces and decent armour like Mangosh.
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Re: Getting your characters to Lv 99 easily

Post by gradeAbra »

What is the best way to power level Pahn? He is a nice character to use.

And by the way CelesDestiny how did you get pass the battle with Neclord and the boss fight in the Seek Valley? Did you just get killed or you use the Bribe trick?
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