=============================================================================== Tales of Vesperia - Grade Shop/Farming FAQ =============================================================================== Created by KADFC (aka KaddyGamer, Fabian Chang) Created on September 26, 2007 @ 6:09 PM Current Version: 1.10 First Version Submitted on : 10:00 AM Pacific Time Current Version Submitted on: 7:52 PM Pacific Time @ November 10 2008 Copyright KADFC 2008 Youtube Account: www.youtube.com/user/KaddyGamer This guide can not be used to make a profit. It can't be reproduced in any other way, printed or hosted anywhere without my approval. This is for personal use only. If you paid for this guide, you got ripped off. You may save this guide on your computer or print it out, but it can't be distributed without the knowledge of where this guide came from or who the author is. This guide originates from Gamefaqs. The only other sites that has permission to post this guide is Super Cheats. Many typos/errors are corrected and will be continued to be corrected. Create topics like "ATTN: KADFC" to tell me if there's an issue with typos, etc... =============================================================================== Table of Content =============================================================================== 1) Introduction 2) Grade Shop List 3) Inherit Items 4) Battle Techniques 5) What You Do Not Keep 6) Strange Things That Do Transfer 7) FAQ Section 8) Rita's Tidal Wave Grade Trick 9) Credit =============================================================================== Introduction =============================================================================== This guide serves to answer all questions related to the grade shop feature presented in Tales of Vesperia. If you don't find it here, please notify me on the message boards, and hopefully someone or myself will offer more assistance. I'm a tester and I do want to find out about certain stuff. As long as I'm curious about it, I will try to find the answer. Enough of the small talk; time to type of guide out. =============================================================================== Grade Shop List =============================================================================== This is the complete list of what the Grade Shop looks like as seen in the game itself. The structure is the same, as well as everything else Max 99 Items 400 | Items 500 Gald 1000 | Titles 500 Collector's Book 10 | Enemy Book 10 Recipes 10 | Cooking Skill 50 World Map 300 | Craft Skill 10 Records 10 | Artes 1000 Skills 1000 | Yuri Artes & Skills 350 Estelle Artes & Skills 350 | Karol Artes & Skills 350 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Rita Artes & Skills 350 | Raven Artes & Skills 350 Judith Artes & Skills 350 | Repede Artes & Skills 350 Increase Max HP 500 | Decrease Max HP 10 Increase Max TP 500 | Decrease Max TP 10 2x Gald 600 | Increase Over Limit 1000 1/2 Experience 10 | Double Experience 1000 10x Experience 3000 | 2x Grade 3000 Skill SP 1 3000 | Increase Item Drop Rate 1000 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Battle Techniques 50 | Unlock Battle Rank 50 Unlock All Skits 1000 | ------------------------------------------------------------------- Each of these grade options has a description and I'll my personal description as well, so that you'll get a better understanding. Some of the things wording from the game is a little bit off or way off. I'll go from left to right, and up and down. Max 99 Items: Posses up to 99 of each item *You can now carry 99 Holy Potions, Tents, etc.. Materials, You could already carry 99 of each material from the beginning. This doesn't effect that. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Items: Inherit all items from previous play through. (Omit Valuable Items) *Will have a certain section regarding this ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gald: Inherit all Gald earned in previous play through Titles: Inherit all titles earned in previous playthrough Collector's Book: Inherit information in the Collector's Book *All the info from the Collector's Book. Shops, drops, steal, etc... Enemy Book: Inherit information in the Enemy Book *This is all the data that you've scanned using Magic Lens. AKA Monster Book ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recepies: Inherit all recipes learned in previous playthrough. *This includes learned skilled and self created ones. Cooking Skill: Inherit current cooking skill level *1 Star, 2 Star, 3 Star, Mastered, whatever you had before. World Map: Inherit town and dungeon information on the World Map *Whatever you saw on your world map before, you'll see the same thing. It's great if you've done Map Nerd. Craft Skill: Inherit current craft skill level *There is no level. If you get this, you can just make about anything in synthesis menu/screen. Records: Inherit current information listed in the "Record" menu. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Artes: Inherit all Artes from previous playthrough. This option is for all characters. *This can not coexist if one of the (Character) Artes & Skills is checked. If that was to happen the other will be come unchecked ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Inherit all skills from previous play through. This option is for all characters. *This can not coexist if one of the (Character) Artes & Skills is checked. If that was to happen the other will be come unchecked ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuri / Estelle / Karol / Rita / Raven / Judith / Repede Artes & Skills: Inherit Artes, Arte usage status and Skills from previous play through. This option is only for (Name of Character). *This can not coexist if one either Artes or Skills is checked. If that was to happen the other will be come unchecked ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Increase Max HP: Start the game with maximum HP increased by 20%. Cannot be used with "Decrease Max HP". Decrease Max HP: Start the game with maximum HP decreased by 20%. Cannot be used with "Increase Max HP". Increase Max TP: Start the game with maximum TP increased by 20%. Cannot be used with "Decrease Max TP". Decrease Max TP: Start the game with maximum TP decreased by 20%. Cannot be used with "Increase Max TP". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2x Gald: Earn twice the amount of Gald in battle. Increase Over Limit: Doubles the speed at which the Over Limit gauge fills. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1/2 Experience: Decrease the amount of EXP earned to half. Cannot be used with other EXP related skills. *Cannot coexist with Double Experience, 10x Experience, nor Battle Techniques Double Experience: Earn twice the normal EXP in battle. Cannot be used in combination with other EXP related options *Cannot coexist with 1/2 Experience, 10x Experience, nor Battle Techniques 10x Experience: Earn 10 times the normal EXP in battle. Cannot be used with other EXP related options. *Cannot coexist with 1/2 Experience, Double Experience, nor Battle Techniques ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2x Grade: Earn twice the amount of GRADE... Skill SP 1: Reduce the SP consumption for using skills to 1. *Know that list of skills that has Strength 1, Combo Plus 3, Item Pro, etc...? Well, every single thing on that list now only requires 1 point to use. Increase Item Drop Rate: Doubles the chances of acquiring items from a battle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Battle Techniques: Set EXP value to 1 and increase bonus EXP by 5x *Will have a seperate section regarding this. Unlock Battle Rank: Unlock battle difficulty "UNKNOWN". *I don't even see the point of getting this. Harder battles, that's all. Not too hard if you have 10x Experience though. Serves as a challenge to some. I guess it also serves as a better Grade multiplier than Hard mode. Unlock All Skits: You can view all skits on the Skit Player at Nam Cobanda Isle located somewhere in the world. *Many people use this to get Yuri's Item Hater *Many people use this to get the achievement "Character Study" =============================================================================== Inherit Items =============================================================================== The term "item" in this case, it not what you expect. This section will cover all that will be inherited in terms of "item." - Tools (In battle items and anything on the list of Tools): Apple Gel, Limit Bottle, Sage, Red Basil, All-Divide, Matt, etc...) - All Main Weapons *This includes Fell Arms and they have been unlocked. But their attack power is resetted back to 0. You can use Last Fencer in the meantime or anything else that's powerful. - All Sub Weapons - All Head Armors - All Body Armors - All Accessories - All Ingredients (Food) - All Syntheis Materials - The Valuable's List isn't completely cleared out. You do get to keep all of your attachements, like: Black Hat, White Hat, Eye Patch, Plain Canteen, Sunglasses, New Bodhi Blastia... Overdrive Lady, etc... =============================================================================== Battle Techniques =============================================================================== When people talk about getting that Low Level Challenger achievement, they'll recommend using 1/2 Experience. But Battle Techniques can take that to the next level. With this, you can have everyone stay at their initial levels til the end of the game. (400 EXP is like 400 battles) "Battle Techniques: Set EXP value to 1 and increase bonus EXP by 5x" This means, every single battle that you win, the EXP rewarded will always be 1 EXP. The difference is the bonus EXP part. Depending on what you did during the battle itself, you can get a lot of Bonus EXP or 0. I'm here to tell you how to get a Bonus EXP of 0. This is from my personal testing and I did this in the Zaphias Castle early on in the game. I have all the equipment/skills etc.. to test what's needed and what's required to get Bonus EXP of 0. Here are a few guidelines that you should know. - Time Spent in Battle: Spend over 30 seconds in battle in order to get a deduction of bonus EXP Spend anywhere from 20 to 30 seconds and you might get 5 - 15 bonus EXP Spend less than 20 seconds and you'll get the most bonus EXP Spend over 30 seconds and that will affect other parts like combos and take damage in battle. Meaning you can do more and still get 0 - Combos: In order to get 0, do less than 10 hits 11 to 15 hits and it's a maybe Over 15 hits means you'll definelty get some bonus - Take Damage in Battle In order to get 0, take at least 3 hits If more than 30 seconds, no need to take a hit at all Damage taken doesn't matter, it's number of times you take it. - Artes You can use normal physical attack with 1 Arte or Base to get 0 Use two artes or more and you'll get bonus EXP - Burste Arte / Mystic Arte Don't use these. They'll guarantee that you'll get Bonus EXP afterwards. I can't really say much on doing secret missions. I would assume they award some Bonus EXP afterwards. If I was doing this, I wouldn't even care for the SM In other words, if you really want to use this Battle Technique to get the lowest amount of EXP throughout the game, you can use just about anything. I'm planning on using Combo Plus 1, 2, and 3 and combination with Shining Fang. Equip strong weapons so that I don't need to waste too much time comboing. Spend at least the first 20 seconds free running before I actually finish the enemy off. This is just some food for thought. =============================================================================== What You Do Not Keep =============================================================================== Even if you bought every single thing possible from the grade shop, there's still a lot of things that you can not transfer into your EX New Game. * Levels: All characters' level will reset back to their inital levels. This includes your SP, HP, and TP as well * Chips: All chips from Nam Cobanda Isle will reset back to 0 * Sidequests: All events are restarted and you the titles are given to you, even if you have them already. Meaning, you'll have to start over. * All valuables that aren't an attachment. To list some, Mother's Memento, Limit Duo, Limit Trio, Imperial Seal. Just about anything relevant to the storyline advancement sequence. Items given from sidequests as well. * Kills: All kills done by every single character in terms of their Fell Arm is resetted back to 0. So all Fell Arms have an attack power of 0 once you start your EX New Game. * Giganto: You'll have to kill every single one of them again in order for Rich to give you his rewards. * Tales of Draspi's Number in the Records. I couldn't care less. * Dragon Race Lv. # completion times in the Records. No fair, I wanted to keep this. How am I suppose to beat my old record now? =============================================================================== Strange Things That Do Transfer =============================================================================== * Estelle's Healing: There's a sidequest in Aurnion about Estelle healing a certain amount of HP. I got this before and I can trigger this apart again, and I was doing a speed run. So she couldn't have healed more than 2000. * Rita's Seeker: The same thing with her's. She was only in 50% of all my speed run battles. Not possible for her to acculate a damage over 1 million There may be more, but I haven't discovered them yet. =============================================================================== FAQ Section =============================================================================== 1) How much grade should I have in order to get everything possible? A) In terms of getting every thing possible, but not having any of them come crosses with one another, it takes 18450 Grades total. If you want to take the longer way because of Skill and Artes for each single character (they cost 450 more), then I would have to say 18900. Anything more than 18900 Grades will not be used no matter what you do. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Will I have to grind for grade again once I used for my next playthrough? A) That would be no. Whatever grade you used for your upcoming EX New Games would be refunded back to you once the game is over. Tales of the Abyss did the same thing as well. So if you earned over 20K worth of Grade on your first playthrough, for all future playthrough, you don't need to worry about grade ever again. (Unless of course, you traded all of that for chips in Cobanda) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) What's the fastest way to get Grade? A) That would be the Rita's Tidal Wave Grade Trick explained in the next section. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) With if I find that section too much work? A) There is an Auto Grade Farming method, but I don't feel explaining it. Your 360 might fry due to the amount it's left on. I don't recommend it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Are all grade purchases good for only one playthrough? A) Yes. Once you restart your game over again, you'll need to rebuy it in the grade shop. But since you get a refund anyways, this shouldn't an issue. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) What is a grade shop and how do you get to it? A) The Grade Shop is a system that let's the player replay the game and with a kick to it, some features are avaliable if you have enough grade to buy it. It might seem a lot of points, but with the Rita Trick, it's fairly easy if you're persistant. In order to get it, you'll first have to complete the game's main storlyine and at the very end, you'll be given an option to save. Do so. Then on the menu screen, you'll be given the 3rd option called "EX New Game." Select that. Next select that save with a star by the clock time on the left side. Only the saves with a star on them is allowed to become a EX New Game. If you try to load one that isn't, you'll be sent back to the main menu. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) How do I check how much grade I currently have? A) Go to Nam Cobanda Isle. Talk to the Kow Kid that let's you trade your gald or grade for chips. Pick the option to trade your grade in, but just look, don't actually trade your grade in. That will show you the grade you currently have. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) Is Grade Farming done before or after New Game+? A) It's suppose to be done before going into New Game Plus (Ex New Game). You can't accumulate any Grade when you first off, not even go to the grade shop. The Grade Shop can only be activated from starting an EX New Game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) When does Nam Cobanda Isle open up? I want to check my grade. A) When you can enter the last dungeon or rather, when you're about to go to Nordopolica and Dahngrest and invite them for a meeting. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) What's the point is even using a Grade Shop? A) Well, if you want to finish everything that you missed, use it. If you want to do that Low Level Challenger, you have to use it. Chances of you finishing everything on your first playthrough is not possible. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) Doesn't 10x Experience break the game? A) Yes... that's the whole point. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) So if I bought Artes for 1000 and Skills for 1000, does that take care of everything with the character's Artes and Skill usage, the 450 ones? A) Yes, it does. Those two are ment to fulfill the other seperate ones when you buy both of those. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13) What's the best time to Grade Farm? A) I would say at the very end of the game. Why rush it? The same thing applies for Gald. There's is no deadline for both situations, that includes sidequests and what not. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14) How do I earn grade? I battle a lot, but I keep getting 0? A) To put it simply, increase your difficulty to Hard and do a lot of FS Chain. There is more, but that is the basics. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15) I can grade farm in the colesium right? A) Yes. That's also one of the recommended way to get Grade, Level, etc... However, I find it only a secondary choice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16) Can you buy grade? A) No, you can't convert anything into grade. You'll have to farm/grind for it. =============================================================================== Rita's Tidal Wave Grade Trick =============================================================================== Here's a few videos of how the process works. Post questions on the vid and I'll try my best to answer them. I'm pretty sure I'm using method 1 for these vids. In the future, I used method 2 to get my 5000+ Hit Combo. Enjoy: The Hit That Keeps On Hitting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zh3VLCcm8A KADFC's Last Grade Farming http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi2ABh72tKM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdzpuj4m7U4 The main concept of this method, I've learned from someone else, but I'm going to put this in my own words. I'm not going to copy what they said and put them here. That's copyright infringement. Besides, two different methods. *EDIT: Since I got complains from the opposite, and a few others has restated their claim, I have no excuse but to provide both methods. There's only 1 small difference in both processes. Both of which is determined by the accessory equipped Well, like the title states. You use Rita, obviously. What else? Tidal Wave. Both you should already have and I don't need to describe how/why. With Rita being used, the other 3 characters don't matter. It can be anyone. Okay, now let's talk about skills you want Rita to have. Just doing this as I run down the list from top to bottom: - Light Magic: Decreases TP consumption and cast time. Also decreases the spell's power. - Minimum Damage: Damage inflicted will be reduced to 1 - Spell End: Able to move immediately after casting a spell. - O.L. Boost: Increases the duration of Over Limit. - *Spirits, 2, 3, and maybe even 4: Increases Max TP by 20 - 50 - 100 - 150 If you have 999 already, then you don't need it. - **OVL Bonus 2: Occasionally fully restores TP during Overlimit *Method 1: Need this. *Method 2: Not needed if you have a Risky Ring, but Rita should be at level 50 and up. Just to be sure that you have TP to do this. **Method 1: Need this. Isn't really considered optional. **Method 2: Even though this isn't needed, I rather have this equip if it's possible. This guarantees that you won't need to use items to recover ever again, no matter how long you want to do this before quitting. Here are list of weapons that you might want if you don't have the required skills used in this method. Most of which comes from synthesis. - Ever Blue (All) = Light Magic - Sash +1 = Minimum Damage - Psychedelica +1 = Spell End + Spirits 2 *Blade Drifts of Zopheir - Nova (All) = O.L. Boost - Ivy Blade = Spirits 4 - Sword Whip +1a = OVL Bonus 2 (and +1b) - Lovely Cat Dictionary = Spirits 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other equipments *1* Wonder Symbol = Reduces the casting time wait/lag after cast of each spell Found in a chest in Heracles, the area after you upgrade your Sorcerer's Ring. It's in a room on the very left. Or you can just gather the required items and get it from Synthesis. *2* Risky Ring = TP casting is now 1; This is for Rita To get this item, trade in 111111 Chips in Nam Cobanda Isle. This is towards the end of the game, when the final dungeon is revealed. - Blue Dice (0-3) = Earn 20% More Grade; This is for all other characters This is not required, but speeds up the process. Blue Dice do stack in it's effect to get you more grade. 1) Kow Kids final exchange/prize contain a Blue Dice 2) With a Level 4 or 5 Sorcerer's Ring, find it near the end of Keiv Moc from burning bushes. Blue Dice is in a chest. 3) Third Encounter with Zagi gets you a Dice. Secret Mission may be required *1* : Method 1 *2* : Method 2 NOTE 1: If you have a Dice and want to make into a Blue Dice, the material needed synthesis is to the west of Mt. Temza's mountain areas at night. Gentlegolem has it. NOTE 2: If you do a lot of searching/grinding at the EX Dungeon in post game, you will end up getting a lot of Dice. Dice are from random chests. NOTE 3: People has claim that they got a Dice from the Dice Master located in Capua Nor. They claim that you'll get a Dice from him after you get the Title of "New Dice Master." That is FALSE! Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUtrr5paDvc This is what you get (all of them are x1): Life Bottle Panacea Bottle Holy Bottle Dark Bottle Syrup Bottle Nectar Bottle I don't see any Dice, do you? Good, me either. PS. Bottle Set =/= Dice Set (as a compliment) So, Bottle =/= Dice Besides the Blue Dice, everything else equipped to the other 3 characters does not matter. The same goes for Rita and Risky Ring for method 2 or equip her with Wonder Symbol for method 1. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Method 1 VS Method 2: Pros and Cons (Wonder Symbol VS Risky Ring) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Method 1: Wonder Symbol and have skills that support TP, and having Repede use items on Rita whenever she is low on TP. Meaning if that OVL Bonus 2 didn't trigger when you need it he most. Pros: More Tidal Wave casting per OL phase. Thus, making it suposely more casting overall, which means more grade over time. More Bang for the Buck. Wonder Symbol is easily obtainable. Cons: If OVL Bonus 2 doesn't kick in, you'll have to reply on someone else to refill your TP amount. Might need to get 0 TP casting if you're in Lvl 3 OL or Lvl 4 OL to take this con away. To not break the chain, you might actually need to time when you trigger Tidal Wave. *Method 2: Risky Ring will make all TP casts be 1 TP. Meaning, you don't have to worry about TP ever again. I got a combo over 5000 hits without breaking. Pros: No more TP issue. Personally for me, easier to chain/combo without interferrence. Cons: Defense will plummet. Play a lot Poker in order to get Risky Ring. Might take longer to get more grade than Method 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Battle Sequence 1) You'll be controlling Rita, so her's doesn't matter 2) For battle formations, but Rita in the very back and the other 3 characters in the very front and surrounding her. 3) For all 3 characters set this up for them Target: Help Allies HP: Avoid Risk TP: Do Not Use Action: Defend Position: Keep Distance Item: Do Not Use OVL: Do Not Use FS: Do Not Use *The key into all of this, is "Defend" for all your allies ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Artes Set Tidal Wave for all the commands. This is the only spell you should be spamming. To kill them, when you want to quit, use FS (aka Fatal Strikes). You don't have to use FS, you just get more grade and you don't have to do with some other person. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Random Battles I'm going to stick with the same area mentioned by the creator. That is the area outside of Halure during night time. You'll run in this hog/pig that has yellow ears with body of purple. Get into a battle with 4 of them. *Method 1: You'll need to Encounter Link 3 groups of enemies and go into battle because the higher than number of enemies there are, the faster your OL bar will build up from casting Tidal Wave once. Since you need to get to lvl 3 or 4 during all parts because you need the TP cost to at 0. Then this is logical. Without being in lvl 3 or 4, you'll TP will slowly go down. *Method 2: You'll need to get into a group of 3 monsters. Yes, I've tested this more than once. For method 2, we only need to get Lvl 1 OL constantly throughout the process. Since Risky Ring taskes care of the TP issue, we do not need Lvl 3 or 4. Constantly casting Tidal Wave in Lvl 1 OL should able you to get 1 bar of OL before it runs out, just perfect. *NOTE: The more enemies you have doesn't mean you'll get more Grade for each one there. People, including myself, have tested the results. The amount of enemies only determines how fast your OL bars are filled up. The number of FS Symbol accumulated in the process from all of them means nothing. It's the FS Chain that matters, not the number of FS Symbols you see from every Tidal Wave cast. It's not like you can instantly FS all 8 enemies that's showing the FS Symbols now. Only the enemy that you have locked on matters in the process. If you, for some reason, eliminate your target, your FS Chain will be broken, thus, your FS Chain shown will reset to 0, but the game will keep this score for you and you'll still be rewarded (stacking wise) after the battle. So rest assured, you won't lose your effort. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Difficulty Setting Set the difficulty to Hard or if you can, Unknown. Setting it on higher difficulties will give you a bonus for grades at the end. 1.5x more Grade ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Last Preparation Method 1: Enter the battle with Lvl 3 or 4. If you do enter the battle without level 3 or 4, pop a few Limit Bottles, until you get it. Or take the Method 2 approach and slowly work your way up until you get lvl 3/4. Method 2: Before going into battle, increase your OL to at least level 1. IF you do enter the battle without level 1, use a Limit Bottle with someone else besides Rita. So that you can OL with Rita ASAP. NOTE: For those who don't know, like me when I first started this, but now I do! OL pad are triggered depending on what you push. Thus: Direction pad: Right - Lv1 OL Down - Lv2 OL Left - Lv3 OL Up - Lv4 OL Method 1: Use Left to trigger OL mode Method 2: Use Right to trigger OL mode ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Actual Grade Grinding Process ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Side NOTE: The rest of this section, I'm just going to leave it as it be. This was meant to be written for Method 2, but I don't see too much conflictions. If you do, figure it outself of how you can make it into method 1. With everything else that is stated previously and taken into consideration, you should be using Rita with Tidal Wave set up. Encounter the battle with the 4 Warhogs. 1) As soon as the battle starts, double check to see that the Battle Sequence is indeed turned on and working. 2) Over Limit Rita and cast Tidal Wave constantly. 3) If the Over Limit Bar is about to run out, keep on hitting the Over Limit button to make sure that Rita stay in Over Limit form. 4) The purpose of this isn't to get a nice long combo. It's to get a good FS chain going. As long as you see Chain ####, that's good enough. Even if you get constant Chains of 10, break, Chain 10, break, that still counts. All we want is FS Chains and they'll accumulate. Breaking any chains will not concern you in getting more Grade. This is the key concept of getting Grades from this battle, FS Chaining *You can of course, attempt to get a nice long combo which isn't related into getting more grade. I've managed to pull a combo of 5535, but that does take over 30 minutes non-stop. The reason that it broke was because I accidently triggers a Burste Arte by actually holding it down. *Combo of 999 also gives you a small amount of Grade. Isn't needed. 5) What does concern you in regards of how much Grade you get, depends on how long you do it before quitting, and saving. I suggest no more than 20 minutes. You could be doing this for 40 minutes straight or longer and get grades equal or worse than if you stopped at 15 minutes. *Prepare to listen to the following: Tidal Wave, Blah Blah Blah, Tidal Wave, I'm so going to make you Blah Blah Blah, Tidal Wave Blah Blah Blah, Tidal Wave... 6) I suggest any where from 8 to 20 minutes per session before stopping. 7) When you think you're done. FS the enemies after casting Tidal Wave. If you don't want to, you always have your AI partners destroy them for you, but you would need to mess with their stuff, and taking damage in battle also gives you a deduction in Grade. Your choice. *Using Burste Arte/Mystic Artes works just as well. You do get grade for using them in battle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *NOTE: To get one of Judith's Costumes (Sky), it's required to get 1000 FS Chains. So really, you're just killing two birds with 1 stone. After the battle, don't expect too much. The grade that you get can range from 700 to 2500+. Doing it for 20 minutes, usually gets you around 1300~ or so. But sometimes, you will get more or less. This process flucuates, so there isn't a guarantee of how much grade you'll get. Do this for an hour or so, then go to Cobanda to check your overall Grade. Aim to get 18,450 Grades. This can take about 2 to 4 hours, but it's proven to the fastest method. * I hope that takes care of everything. Notify me on the boards if needed. =============================================================================== Credits =============================================================================== Welch_Vineyard: The original creator of the Grade Grinding. This isn't their method, since it's way different, but the idea remains the same. The topic "Farming Grade with Rita: The Sequel: The Reckoning" also deserves credit HiyruuMax: The original Grade Grinding vids. * Mine will be posted later on. VyseTheLegend: The first mentioning of using Risky Ring Miyuki: The OL triggers Gamefaqs for posting this. Lastly, KADFC, the creator of this FAQ