Final Fantasy 16: 8 Best Grinding Spots & Strategies

Final Fantasy 16 is all about learning and upgrading the best abilities and skills; to do that, you need a lot of Ability points. To move swiftly through the storyline and get AP and XP simultaneously, you should know the best grinding spots in Final Fantasy 16.

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Key Takeaways

• Firstly, equip a couple of important accessories before farming since they increase the amount of XPand AP earned. This includes ‘The Wages of Warcraft,’ which increases AP earned in normal battles by 20%. You can get it from Charon for 15,000 gil.
• Moreover, getting ‘On Fortune and the Heavens’ boosts the XP earned by 15%. It can be bought from Charon for only 5500 gil.
• Another thing you might want to do before going farming is changing the difficulty to Story-Focused. This reduces damage done by enemies and also lowers their HP.
• The Free Cities of Kanver can be visited when you are on ‘Event fall’ in the main story. You can get 1,112 AP in only a few minutes by traveling there and completing the first three fights. You won’t get the same amount of AP by redoing the mission using Arete Stone.
• However, if you restart the mission by traveling somewhere else after the first three fights, you can farm this location for as long as you want.
• Hunting Bluebirds in Royal Meadows Obelisk is the next best grinding strategy. You can get 48 AP from hunting each Bluebird, considering you have equipped the mentioned accessories.
• Furthermore, you can hunt monsters ranging from C-Rank up to S-Rank. The XP earned depends on the rank of the monster.
• Typically, C-Rank will get you 5,000 XP, B-Rank will get you 10,000 XP, A-Rank will get you 15,000 XP, and S-Rank will get you 20,000 or 30,000
• Once you have completed the first playthrough, in the New Game+, you can travel to Kritten Hollow to defeat 5 Hyenas to get a total of 1,120 AP.
• Side Quests are also a very overlooked way of earning XP. They may earn you many Experience points while only taking a few minutes.

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As in any other game, selecting the right items and abilities will greatly affect your gameplay. Since we are trying to maximize our Ability points and XP earned, there are a couple of items and accessories that are a must-have for us.

The Wages Of Warcraft

This accessory is perfect for our cause because it increases ability points gained in normal encounters by 20%. You can get this item through Charon from the hideaway for 15,000 gil. It is important to note that you can only get this after you reach ‘Home Sweet Home’ in the main story.

The Wages of Warcraft
Cost	15,000 gil
Where to Get	Charon from Hideaway
Description	Increases Ability points earned in battles by 20%

On Fortune And The Heavens

The perfect accessory for farming XP, ‘On Fortune and the Heavens,’ will grant you an extra 15% XP in every battle you take on. Furthermore, you can get this in your inventory for only 5500 gil from Charon in the Hideaway.

On Fortune And The Heavens
Cost	15,000 gil
Where to Get	Charon from Hideaway
Description	Increases Ability points earned in battles by 20%

These accessories are equally important as the best grinding spots in Final Fantasy 16, as they reduce the time taken to earn the same amount of AP and XP.

Change Difficulty To Story Focused

There are two gameplay modes that you can alternate between. These include Story-Focused and Action-Focused. Action-focused is perfect if you want the thrill and make fights more difficult. It increases enemies’ HP and makes combat more challenging, perfect for experienced players.

However, we aim to farm AP and XP, so we will change our gameplay mode to ‘Story Focused.’ What this will do, is that it reduces enemies’ damage and HP significantly. Hence, it makes killing them easier, and we can farm much quicker.

Story-Focused mode is essentially the ‘easy’ difficulty level, which fits perfectly with our aim. We can change this by simply heading into the menu and navigating to the system menu. From here, you should head onto Game settings and toggle from Action focused to Story-focused.

If you still don’t understand this, you can read more about Story vs Action mode in Final Fantasy 16.

The Free Cities Of Kanver

Starting with one of the best and most productive grinding spots in Final Fantasy 16, the city of Kanver is a dungeon location. This means that once you have cleared it, you won’t be able to return. Does that mean it is a one-and-done location? Most definitely not.

There is a simple trick that will allow you to repeatedly farm this spot and earn insane amounts of Ability points in only a couple of minutes. Make sure to fully use this location before you complete it because it won’t be as productive when you play it using the Arete Stone.

Firstly, make your way to The Free Cities of Kanver using the map. Then after the cutscene, you can progress and move through the city. After moving ahead, you will have your first fight in the city.

First Fight

Here, you will face an Lv.20 Orcish Fodder and some other weak enemies. If you use the right combinations, demolishing these enemies will only take a couple of seconds. Moreover, this battle will give you almost 300 AP. This is insane for the amount of time it took. After defeating them, move on to the next fight.

Second Fight

Right after the first fight, Lv.33 Akashic Gandfreyr and his allies will await you ahead. Using the Judgement bolt and Phoenix rebirth, you can swiftly kill these enemies without much effort. Furthermore, killing them will get you around 130 AP and 575 XP. Even though we got a little less AP in this fight, it will all be worth it in the next fight.

Third Fight

Moving forward, you will have to face an Lv.33 Orcish Fodder and a couple of weaker enemies. Take your time and defeat them using the best skills in Final Fantasy 16. This battle will earn you about 700 AP and 1150 XP.

There is also a fourth battle. However, that takes quite a bit of time, and the rewards aren’t as great. Hence, don’t bother with the fourth fight; keep repeating the first 3 to be most efficient.

Fights	Ability Points Earned	Experience Earned
1st Fight	288	27
2nd Fight	130	575
3rd Fight	700	1150

After fighting the first three battles, you would want to move to a different location on the map. When you try to do this, the game will give you a warning:

Click yes. Don’t worry; you won’t lose any of your AP and XP earned; it only loses the story progress. This allows you to constantly repeat these 3 fights and get massive amounts of AP without progressing in the story, making this one of the best grinding spots in Final Fantasy 16.

Hunting Bluebird In Royal Meadows Obelisk

One of the best and fastest ways to get AP is by hunting Bluebirds. This farming method is most effective during early to mid-game. Hunting a single Bluebird will earn you a great 40 Ability Points.

Bluebird	40 AP (Without accessories for boosting AP)
Vulture	8 AP (Without accessories for boosting AP)
Wild Chocobo	4 AP (Without accessories for boosting AP)

When you consider how much you get for killing a Chocobo or Vulture (8 AP and 4 AP, respectively), you understand how large 40 AP is. In addition, after using the accessories mentioned at the start, you will get 48 AP per Bluebird.

To hunt Bluebirds, you would want to travel fast to Royal Meadows Obelisk. From there, to Northreach, you will encounter three Bluebirds. Moreover, there will be a few Chocobos with the Bluebird that will start attacking you. After you defeat them, fast travel back to Royal Meadows Obelisk.

The Bluebirds will keep respawning, so farm as much AP as you want. On the other hand, as you progress to ‘Bloodlines’ in the story, the Bluebirds will stop respawning. Hence, Royal Meadows Obelisk is amongst the best grinding spots in Final Fantasy 16.

The Hunting Board

Even though Hunting Board isn’t the location where you will be farming XP, it will guide you on where to hunt for monsters. On the Hunt board, there will be a description of each monster and hints about where to find them.

There are 32 monsters, each with a different grade and difficulty. They may be as low as a C grade or as high as an S grade. S is the highest difficulty and hence has the highest reward. Some monsters can only be hunted after you progress in the story.

Rank of Monster	Experience Earned (Range)
C-Rank	5,000 – 6,000
B-Rank	8,000 – 10,000
A-Rank	10,000 – 15,000
S-Rank	20,000 – 30,000

As we can see, as the rank increases, the experience earned will also increase, the highest being 30,000. Even though this is a one-time way of earning XP, it is definitely the quickest way to earn thousands of XP.

The locations of each of the monsters vary, but all the hints and descriptions can be seen from the hunting board in Cid’s Hideaway. This is the best way to farm XP in Final Fantasy 16.

Kritten Hollow In New Game+

This is one of the best grinding spots in Final Fantasy 16, but it is only the best in New Game+. This means you must complete the game once before you can farm this location to its full extent. It is important to note that this may not be useful for newer players so that you can scroll to the next grinding strategy.

In Final Fantasy 16, you can play through the second playthrough after finishing the game once. This adds a new difficulty level, ‘Final Fantasy mode,’ which boosts the amount of XP earned in each battle.

Furthermore, you can defeat a group of 5 Hyenas and get rewarded with 1,120 AP. All you have to do is fast-travel to ‘Ravenwit Walls’ and navigate to the Eastern side of the map called ‘Kritten Hollows.’

Once you see the eastern end of the map, you will see a group of 5 Hyenas. Killing them will take a minute, and you will earn 1,120 AP. You can follow this detailed guide by PowerPyx on YouTube for hunting these 5 Hyenas for AP.

Sidequests

The most cliché and popular way of earning XP in Final Fantasy or any game is by completing Side quests. However, it’s very common for players to overlook the importance of side quests and only focus on the main story.

These quests may offer huge amounts of XP for a couple of minutes worth of your time. In addition, it helps in character development, and you can appreciate the attention to detail by developers.

That concludes the best grinding spots and strategies in Final Fantasy 16. Following this guide, you can level up and upgrade your Eikon abilities much quicker. On the other hand, remember that this game aims to have fun, not just farm XP and AP.

Enjoy the game’s in-depth lore, and don’t worry too much about AP or XP. Follow these strategies whenever you can, but remember that everyone has a different playstyle. Moreover, if you want to improve your gameplay and swiftly move through the main story, read more guides:

• Final Fantasy 16 Soul Stingers.
• Final Fantasy 16 Wind Shard.
• Final Fantasy 16 Strategy Guide.