How to get loads of exp on the first disk

[dappa]

You can defeat a grand dragon on disc one by doing this. When you leave lindblum for the first time go to qu's marsh and get quina to join your party.

Take quina back to lindblum and exit lindblum through the business district. There is a forest near pinnacle rocks. Fight the monsters in this forest till the bomb monster shows up (you may have to be patient as it rarely shows up).

Make quina eat a bomb and it will learn the 'mustard bomb' spell.

Go to the popos heights above gizamalukes grotto and challenge a grand dragon to a battle. Cast the mustard bomb on it and it will die when it trys to attack you.

This method relies on you getting the first attack on the dragon and the spell not missing it. When you defeat it make sure you save after each time because even if you manage to get your party to high levels using this method the grand dragon can still wipe you out as you have low strength armour.

Another method that works is go to the forests around the chocobo's forest and fight the mandragoras (the plant like monsters that throw nuts at you).

Get quina to eat one of them, quina will learn the ability 'limit glove'. Take quina to to gizamalukes grotto and delibrately ko him, then revive him.

There is a chance that quina will have 1hp when revived (if not keep repeating til you get 1hp)

Take quina to the popos heights and challenge the grand dragons to a battle. Cast 'limit glove' for 9999hp damage. Make sure your other party members stay idle and wait for quinas next turn. Have quina cast 'limit glove' again to finish the dragon off.

This method relies more on luck than the first method as you have to hope the dragon attacks both times with its claws rather than using thundaga and not hit quina either time.

You may want to try this method on the garudas that inhabit the forests in the popos heights first as they can be killed off with one hit with the 'limit glove' plus you still get a few thousand exp for your trouble.

This is quite useful for getting your characters to level 50+ early in the game so you can challenge the tantarion with high levels on disc two.