Is there a proper method to grind levels?

[Sendai-Horatio]

I did my first playthrough with lightspeed fighter and only did enough quests to fully expand the garden and I just started my second playthrough. I do have the DLC, however I'm only level 27 and the enemies seem too strong in the third door.

 

I wanted to do the material farming before I do the Legendary Gardener but I can't seem to find a location that will push me up to the mid 30's so I can easily do the third door in the DLC for the materials.

 

Right now with the remaster it's making it hard to find old info on the original game, so I'm not sure what applies to the original and what will only work for the remaster.

[adamska_br]

I guess the best way to get more levels is by replaying the junkyard dungeon, as you can get exp and good materials for the weapons. Also, there's a sidequest near the end of the game which you takes you back to the prologue area and allows you to rake in a lot of exp. 

[MandA60VISE]

Focus more on getting the materials needed to upgrade all weapons and beat route B as well. Both of those should get you enough levels and better words to make good attempts at the third door (stronger weapons will help as well). Grinding solely for EXP is pointless.

[Sendai-Horatio]

31 minutes ago, MandA60VISE said:

Focus more on getting the materials needed to upgrade all weapons and beat route B as well. Both of those should get you enough levels and better words to make good attempts at the third door (stronger weapons will help as well). Grinding solely for EXP is pointless.

Yeah I started to collect Black pearls since they were not appearing in the DLC. After that I was going to then focus on all the Complex/Simple Machine drops since they seem to come from all the same place.

[IriidaV]

You most likely already knew this but you'll have missed out on a lot of great quests in the first half of the game by blasting through it for the Lightspeed Fighter trophy, which is a shame because a lot of those quests are great, and offers a natural way to level up to a pretty high standard so you can easily blast through the DLC in your second play through. This was my method for the plat:

 

First playthrough: Ending A + all sidequests in first half, almost all sidequests in second half

Second playthrough: Ending B + finish all sidequests (the Moonflower one especially plus taking advantage of the breeding to get the Lunar Tear for that trophy) + start work on material farming + experience the DLC - finishing this playthrough should get you around the 40 hour mark and land you at level 35-40

Third playthrough: Ending C + finish material farming for weapons (you'll also be plowing through all the bosses at this point with 3-5 hits - I ended this playthrough at roughly 82 hours, material farming sucked.

Fourth playthrough - speedrun. I took about 7 hours but I also watched some cutscenes and messed up in some areas, no doubt it could be cut down to 6. Make sure to buy the Phoenix Spear as soon as possible in the second half.

Fifthe playthrough - Ending D - I was at about level 62 when I wrapped this up and it took me about 2 hours.