Level One Playthrough

[Xithor]

Alright I have to say that I thought it was going rather smoothly in this play through as I try to keep all my characters at level one until I can maximize their stats later on in the game. Only needed to restart a few times, maybe 4 at the most up through leaving Lindblum and getting Quina in my party. I am absolutely having the hardest time with the Black Mages that you have to fight at the beginning of Gizamaluke's Grotto. The Needle Fork is equipped on Quina so I blind and silence the two of them with tents and have Quina attack away trying to inflict petrify on them and I either petrify one, or kill one of them because Quina hits for such erratic damage, 25 one turn then 500 the next which kills the mages in one hit. It's so frustrating and I've done this battle like 25 times and still no luck!!!!

Anyone done a level one run through of the game and have any advice to getting past these darn Black Mages. Any parts that you have gotten stuck on or frustrated with when running through the game trying to stay at level one?

[True Zidane]

well, if i am correct ur at the part where u gotta go to burmecia thru gizamalukes grotto. well the best to do is first have zidane be the main powerhouse. have vivi cast spells and use items. get freya to use reis wind or jump, then heal wen needed. and have quina either attack or heal. the damage is erratic and quite random, but u should pull thru. i used that strategy and now im fighting the antlion on my lvl 1 playthrough. good luck!

[Xithor]

Thanks for the advice, I actually finally got past that part after like 15 tries and now I'm stuck at a new evil and you could prob guess that it was the part at Pandemonium where you have to fight three battles in a row and they are just working me. The first two battles are not that bad but the third battle is kicking my arse haha. Stinking Shell Dragon I think it's name is, continues to work me but I'm trying and trying haha where you at now?

[True Zidane]

im playin now and im at the part where you have to beat garland, then kuja. its not so hard, its just the flarestar

[Xithor]

The trick in the Kuja fight that I've found is to not summon Carbuncle although most people say to because once Kuja sees that you have reflect on he will revert to his Flare Star which is devastating. So just equip stuff that nullifies or absorbs Thunder and all Kuja will attack with is Thundaga so easy battle haha

[True Zidane]

yeah, now that i beat kuja and after about 20 times fighting that armored shell thing (ur rite he was annoying) im stuck on fighting kraken

[Zidane77]

So are you guys both going through the game on Lv.1 ?
Are you doing the Excalibur II side-quest?

[Xanatos]

I'm doing a level one playthrough right now, besides resetting few times the only problem I had was with Black Waltz no 2, though, nothing extreme, I've beaten him after two or three times. So everything went smoothly so far until I've encountered...

I am absolutely having the hardest time with the Black Mages that you have to fight at the beginning of Gizamaluke's Grotto. The Needle Fork is equipped on Quina so I blind and silence the two of them with tents and have Quina attack away trying to inflict petrify on them and I either petrify one, or kill one of them because Quina hits for such erratic damage, 25 one turn then 500 the next which kills the mages in one hit. It's so frustrating and I've done this battle like 25 times and still no luck!!!!

...yes, the ****ing Black Mages. After many, many attempts I got rid of the first obstacle sometime last night, from what I've seen it took me over an hour to accomplish something like that. I'm not really eager to fight the other two Black Mages today, I also had harder time since I totally forgot about the Tent trick, can you imagine how many potions and phoenix down's I've spent.

I also had a hard time encountering only two of those plants in evil forest, I didn't want Blank to gain any levels since I want Amaranth on lvl one, it was tedious to fight the Plant Brain over and over again.

[Zidane77]

About the plants, how can you not gain exp by killing them?

[vicks and wedge]

how does a level 1 playthrough work??? plz explain to me exactly what it mesns???tx

[loaf]

how does a level 1 playthrough work??? plz explain to me exactly what it mesns???tx

You play the game at level 1.....how hard is that not to understand. You don't level up once.

[Xanatos]

About the plants, how can you not gain exp by killing them?

You do gain experience, though when you encounter only two plants your characters get 11 exp. each, which by the way is not enough to level up.

[vicks and wedge]

is it that hard to explain more....yes simply saying level 1 playthrough is a bit non-discript i dont believe a further explanation is that silly i am sure there are many tricks and things to worry about where a furhter explanation could help. thanks for a douche like answer

[Xanatos]

May you like the answer or not, Loaf pretty much explained it all. You have to beat the game with characters on lvl 1. , it's simple as that. Not many think it's possible, but it's all about right strategies, skills, equipment and a little bit of luck. It can be tedious sometimes, lots of resetting, patience, waiting to accomplish something you don't have much chance of puling off in the first place. As for tricks and strategies, you should check it on youtube or find a decent lvl 1 walkthrough, hell, go through the entire thread, you might get a better view about lvl 1. playthrough after reading some posts.

[Xithor]

is it that hard to explain more....yes simply saying level 1 playthrough is a bit non-discript i dont believe a further explanation is that silly i am sure there are many tricks and things to worry about where a furhter explanation could help. thanks for a douche like answer

I'll give you an example of where a little bit of luck comes into play. When you are going through Gizamarluke's Grotto and Zorn and Thorn force you to fight Black Mages it takes luck because you need Quina to have the right fork with the Add Status of Petrify and use two tents on them to blind/silence them then you keep hitting them with Quina and healing them til you petrify them. You kill them sometimes so you have to reset. Def not the easiest part of the walkthrough but its the one I can remember the easiest.

[loaf]

is it that hard to explain more....yes simply saying level 1 playthrough is a bit non-discript i dont believe a further explanation is that silly i am sure there are many tricks and things to worry about where a furhter explanation could help. thanks for a douche like answer

Hey no problem that's what I'm here for.

[Zidane77]

May you like the answer or not, Loaf pretty much explained it all. You have to beat the game with characters on lvl 1. , it's simple as that. Not many think it's possible, but it's all about right strategies, skills, equipment and a little bit of luck. It can be tedious sometimes, lots of resetting, patience, waiting to accomplish something you don't have much chance of puling off in the first place. As for tricks and strategies, you should check it on youtube or find a decent lvl 1 walkthrough, hell, go through the entire thread, you might get a better view about lvl 1. playthrough after reading some posts.

But is it really possible to go through the game on Lv. 1 ?
What about Pandemonium's forced encounters and Tantarian optional boss (a part of perfect game). ?

[loaf]

But is it really possible to go through the game on Lv. 1 ?
What about Pandemonium's forced encounters and Tantarian optional boss (a part of perfect game). ?

Virus...it isn't that bad of a status ailment.

[Zidane77]

Oh yeah that could work in Pandemonium but what about Tantarian, surely you can't carry the status effect from disc 2-3 ?

[loaf]

I would assume it stays, you don't cure it in the middle of disc changing, and the game doesn't cure you.

[Zidane77]

Well it's at least worth a try, have any idea where that can be inflicted on disc 2?

[vicks and wedge]

thanks guys for furthur explaining iam going to have to check ot some u-tube vids on it sounds hardcore

[Xithor]

Well it's at least worth a try, have any idea where that can be inflicted on disc 2?

I used virus when I was leveling up Dragon's Crest and that was on disc 3 when I had the Golden Chocobo and was able to fly to Vile Island and face the Yans. They can wipe out the whole party so it was difficult. The only other thing that would work is getting Zombie on your party which can be done in the Iifa Tree or from that Zombie Whale on the shores of the Forgotten Continent.

[Zidane77]

I used virus when I was leveling up Dragon's Crest and that was on disc 3 when I had the Golden Chocobo and was able to fly to Vile Island and face the Yans. They can wipe out the whole party so it was difficult. The only other thing that would work is getting Zombie on your party which can be done in the Iifa Tree or from that Zombie Whale on the shores of the Forgotten Continent.

According to this (The FAQ section at bottom), it's impossible to go through the forced pandemonium fights without getting EXP.
GameFAQs: Final Fantasy IX (PS) Low-Level FAQ/Walkthrough by KADFC

You get healed before the battle and for some reason it heals any status effect you might have (including zombie,virus etc.)
So feel free to try it if you want though, but against Tantarian it's worth a shot.

[Xithor]

Yea there are the three fights in Pandemonium that you do get EXP in but that is what makes the fights even more difficult because you have to kill off the party members that you don't want to gain any EXP and focus the EXP onto only three of your eight party members. The ones that need to get the EXP are: Amarant in the the first fight, Steiner in the second fight, and Garnet in the third fight. The second fight was by far my toughest because that boss has a move that deals non-elemental damage (which can't be absorbed) and kills the entire party.

I think Tantarian would be far to tough to face with a level one party. I did try to fight him and my whole party died from one of those paper attacks.

[Zidane77]

Yep i think he's probably impossible to defeat on Lv.1.
I'm still gonna try on disc 3 but those paper attacks take every one down, Freya could survive with Jump though

[Xithor]

Ok so venturing around YouTube I found this video out someone beating him with a level one party. He had to restart after beating him to continue the game because it gave him experience but it can be done lol. Wiped my party out every time I tried though.

YouTube - Final Fantasy 9 - LLG / Low Level - Part 20 ( Tantarian Special )

[Zidane77]

Wow he loaded after beating him, guess he really wanted this on youtube
I'm gonna try and do this with virus/zombie, have no idea if you can go through him without getting exp..

[the_savior21]

Hey no problem that's what I'm here for.

its funny not that i think you were a douche but the guy in your avatar totally would be that guy to give douche answers