***WARNING***WARNING***WARNING***
If you're the type of person who likes to discover how to do certain things by yourself, then please DISCONTINUE READING.
Otherwise, you might regret it. Strong emphasis on the 'might'.
***SPOILERS***SPOILERS***SPOILERS***
This contains a lot of SPOILERS, so please, read at your own risk. SPOILERS meaning it'll take the fun out of playing the game.
LEGEND
LP - License Points
LB - License Board
HP - Hit Points
MP - Magic Points
Exp - Experience Points
MK/MKs - Mist Knack/Mist Knacks
First, a small introduction. I may understand a bit of Japanese when it's spoken, but I definitely don't understand Japanese text. So when I started playing the FFXII J version, I thought I'd level up Vaan until the English version comes out. Here's what I did, which is a bit roundabout, but hey, it works.
After the part where you kill the Stray Tomato mob hunt and head back to Rabanastre, you'll be able to explore Dalmasca Westersand, Giza Plains, and most of Dalmasca Eastersand. Now what you need to do is to increase Vaan's level to 15. Since you're still at the beginning, some of the monsters near Rabanastre just can't give you the exp that you need and most are too difficult to beat right now. Buy the Cure spell and use the appropriate LP in order to buy it in the License Board.
Go to Nalbina Fortress and visit their armor and weapon shop. Buy the Iron Sword (Atk +24), Leather Shield (Eva +8. I'm not sure about this shield, but it's the only one available in Nalbina at this point), Bronze Helmet (Mag Def +6, Str +2), and Bronze Armor (Def +7, Str +2). Of course you need to use some License Points in order to equip them.
Now, at this point in my game, Vaan was already level 15. If you still haven't reached that level, it's ok. That's what the equipment is for, time to kill some enemies. Head to Nebra Shore in the Dalmasca Eastersand and enter the small camp there.
Talk to the shop owner and buy the Battle Harness (Chance to counter when hit, Str +2. Costs 1000 gil). Equip it (use License Points) and head outside the camp. Go to the shore and attack the floating fish (exp 180+ per kill). Oh and remember to steal, steal, steal before you kill them. You can get a nice amount of gil by selling the items you steal from these fishies.
There are only two of them that spawn along the length of the shore so the trick here for quick respawning is to go back to the camp after killing them, save, go back to the title menu (press Start then Square then choose Yes), reload your game, and the two fishies will be back at the shore. Just rinse and repeat until Vaan becomes level 15. Just watch out for the rare monster GREED that spawns at the shore. One way to avoid encoutering it is to kill the Flower Saboten (the cactus-looking plant-thingy) that appears near the shore by the sand next to the coconut trees.
When Vaan reaches level 15, hopefully he has enough LP available to acquire 3 Mist Knacks. Since I'm playing the J version, I didn't mind what Mist Knacks in the License Board to get, I just took the nearest ones because they cost less LP.
Afterwards, head back to Rabanastre Eastersand Gate and save your game there. If you don't have the skill LIBRA (ability to see enemy info and traps) yet, you should buy it in Rabanastre and use LP in order to use it.
If you've done a bit of exploring, you probably noticed the Dinosaur T-Rex type monster that's wandering around the first map of Dalmasca Eastersand, right outside Rabanstre. Use LIBRA skill and check out its stats. Normally the T-Rex's level ranges from only 29-30 (6000+ HP, 300-400 Dmg), but it becomes level 36 (6700+ HP, 700-900 Dmg) when it eats a wolf(the orange-something colored wolflike monsters roaming around). Anyway, keep that in mind.
Now comes the fun part. Since you bought 3 MKs in the LB, you can now use it against that monster Dino. I prefer to use LEVEL 1 MK as a starter since the animation is a lot faster than the LEVEl 2 or the LEVEL 3 MK. It takes a bit of luck and practice, but if you can pull off a nice combo of 6-10 hits (does a random amount of damage from 7000-20000. Well, I THINK it's random), it instantly kills that Dino and you earn 2700+ Exp.
Just hold R2 and keep pressing TRIANGLE rapidly (it's the only button available at this point since Vaan is by himself). Even if you're only able to do 3-5 hits, that's ok as long as it kills the Dino, because after doing MKs, you're MP becomes 0, and if that Dino is still alive, you better make a run for it. When it's dead, go back to Rabanastre, save, go to title menu, reload game, kill Dino, repeat. Do this until you reach level 30.
Now if you're like me, you're probably bored and tired from doing all those MKs (my right arm bicep actually grew larger and became a lot harder, though it's still pretty small). To make the game more interesting at this point, here is what you can do. Use the LP you've acquired and use it to get the UNARMED ATTACK POWER UP (that's what it says in the FFXII LICENSE GRID TRANSLATION(PNG) in gamefaqs by enjirube).
It's up to you to decide which path you want to take in order to get it, but I do suggest you use a path that acquires all of the STRENGTH UP, ACTION TIME SHORTENED 10%, SHIELD EVASION RATE UP, and HP+ skills because it'll make your character a lot stronger. After you've done all that, unequip Vaan's weapon and shield and pound on that Dino with his BARE HANDS. That's right, no weapon and no shield. Attack the Dino.
But always use LIBRA to check if the Dino is level 30 or 36, because if it's level 36, you need to rely on your MK combos again. Vaan can't take the 700-900 dmg per hit from the Dino. Now you might ask why you need to get the SHIELD EVASION RATE UP skill if Vaan isn't even going to use a shield, here's why.
Stop pounding on the Dino for now and go visit Dalmasca Westersand from the Rabanastre Westersand Gate. BIG CREDITS to sephirosuy / Seph (
[email protected]) for writing the 80 Rare Monster List. Get a certain number of chain combo from killing wolves, if you notice the chain combo number flashing, that means that a the LIMBLE WOLF rare monster has appeared in the small map located South of South-West.
Now don't mistake the TEXTA Wolf Rank E Mob Hunt monster for the LIMBLE WOLF rare monster. Remeber the LIMBLE WOLF is in another map, a small map South of South-West from your current location. The TEXTA wolf is sort of like multi-colored, big wolf that hangs out near the exit to the small map, while the LIMBLE wolf is big and red (or some shade of red) all over. Go visit the LIMBLE WOLF.
Your goal here is to steal the GRADIUS (Atk +45, Wind Strike) which is a dagger type weapon. Kill the other wolves first and lure the LIMBLE WOLF near the exit of the map. Steal, steal, steal. The LIMBLE WOLF does about 100+ damage per hit and has a special attack that damages (around 300 dmg) and poisons you.
Thanks to all that HP+ and Active Time Shortened skills, not to mention all that hard work at increasing Vaan's level to 30, you'll steal it in no time. If you're having problems though, losing HP and whatnot, just exit and heal yourself then go back in and steal. After you've stolen the GRADIUS, use LP so that you can equip the weapon and now you can equip a shield. Don't kill the LIMBLE WOLF yet though. Just leave it alone for now.
Go pay the Dino a visit and you'll be doing 900-1000+ damage per attack. Bye-bye Dino. Just make sure the Dino isn't level 36 or else you're still dead meat. But wait, since you have all the SHIELD EVASION RATE UP skills, you might be able to kill it even thought it's stronger. Just pray that Vaan evades its blows. Or you can just MK it like before. Easy, right?
Now I get pretty bored easily so I continued the story until I got to the Tomb of Raithwall, just for fun. Vaan was level 37, Balthier and Fran at 38, and Basch, Ashe, and Penelo at 39. It took me about 4 hours (with food and bathroom breaks of course) to navigate through all the maps and storyline events and kill everything before I reached the Tomb of Raithwall.
The fun thing about leveling Vaan at the beginning is that all the other characters level up (actually they're higher in level than Vaan when you get them, except Penelo when you get her for the first time) and they all have the same number of LP that Vaan accumulated. So when I first got Penelo, her level was 37 and her number of LP was 3200. Nice, right? Saves you the trouble of having to run around with Penelo to increase her level and LP.
With Vaan at level 37, you could literally kill any NORMAL enemy with one blow (except for the Dino and some other high level normal monsters), even without a weapon and shield (as long as you have the UNARMED ATTACK UP skill of course).
Some bosses like Baggamonan, Fuuji, Gijuu, and Rino at the Lhusu mines (which you're supposed to run away from) can be beaten without pressing a button (thanks to the Gambit system). Also the Demon wall in the Tomb of Raithwall can be punched and kicked to death. I'm talking about the 1st Demon Wall, which has a lot of HP and Defense. My characters did about 500-700 damage per UNARMED attack. The Demon Wall was toast. And this was done with none of the playable characters at level 40.
Imagine if you had the time and patience to increase Vaan's level to 50 by just killing the Dino over and over again. Oh and I haven't tried it yet, but I have a theory that you can steal the GRADIUS dagger from the LIMBLE WOLF over and over again. You know, just steal it, save, reload, go back and steal it, save, reload. Just don't kill the LIMBLE WOLF. I'm probably wrong but since I'm a bit sick of the game at this point, I'll just try it some other time.
Oh and if you can get Vaan to acquire 3 MKs before you reach level 15, the better. You can beat the crap out of that Dino a lot earlier and you can gain Exp faster. That's all. The End. Sorry for the typos. And the bad grammar. And for any wrong information that I was too lazy to correct.
ing easy apparently as I already have two silver spots on the bottom. 
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