Leveling in the Early Game?

[Alternatewarning]

I'm somewhat struggling with this game and I feel as if I'm a little underleveled.  I'm around 21ish but I'd rather be at 25.  I'm redoing old missions but my XP doesn't seem to be growing that much.  Is it just a painfully slow grid or am I missing some mechanic?

[ExHaseo]

It's just a painfully slow grind. Unfortunately, the entire game is like that too. There are very sudden and enormous difficulty spikes sprinkled throughout the game. It's really frustrating. Especially since the only thing you can do is grind in the most recent area until you're strong enough. The worst part, is that once you finally beat whatever boss you were stuck on, you'll faceroll through the other areas like you're overleveled, until you hit another difficulty spike, then the cycle continues.

[Beliar4]

Sorry for digging old thread but maybe for future players - Compa`s bell on glowy surfaces summon monster Clione - on stages that are kinda adequate to your level is massive xp boost for defeating [to bad Clione drop no cash].

[Jelly Soup]

1. Install the free DLC dungeons.

2. Start them, ignore your level.

3. Run from every battle.

4. Find treasure chests.

5. The weapons in these chests are rated for that dungeons levels and your characters have no minimum level requirement for equipping stuff.

6. Equip the crap, use it to kill the boss, repeat for that and other dungeons until you've got a good set of weapons/armor beyond your level.

7. Profit.

 

At least, that's how I did it. The extra power allows you to one-shot everything at your level, speeds up both leveling and progress.