.hack//G.U. vol. 3//Redemption

No one's bothered to try the absolute lowest levels. My LLG would have had me finishing somewhere in the low 90's I think, but i started at 86 (party members were lower), only gained a level with Haseo by the time I beat Fidchell, and could (should) have gone lower with a new Reminisce playthrough at least.

The biggest thing to remember is that in Reminisce and Redemption, it's not about level itself and very likely not about stats anymore, since you get no level damage bonus and you have to assume that any hit you take is instant death, it's about attachment slots. Without the levels for at least the lowest level 2 or 3 slot equipment, you are very likely going to have problems. The arena will exacerbate these flaws, making some fights incredibly difficult to almost impossible without the use of weapon changing and the free healing bug. The latter can solve the SP problem in place of a Beast Awakening using an SP Drain weapon, and it is a bug so you may have personal issues there, but the weapon changing is ****ing vital to dodging a lot of attacks even if you play a moderately difficult game at LV. 90 with Super Charge. The invincibility that you have during a weapon change is part of the game, so while it is cheap, you may not, or likely will not, have a say in the matter.

Once that's aside, the major challenges to survival are few and far between. As far as I'm concerned, these are the events you have to worry about outside of the arena with that as the only requirement:

Reminisce
- Moon Tree raid

Redemption
- The second Dingo quest*
- The Azure Knights
- Cubia Core

* - I don't know how the levels of the potential Chaotics are determined, but if they go by party average, Antares will rip everyone apart by himself at LV. 110 (given to him for his Sage Palace fight against Haseo), voiding any danger this Quest presents.

However, there is the EXP threat from many forced Quest bosses and other mandatory encounters such as the Outer Dungeon bugs, the Moon Tree members, Cubia Gomora and the Anti-Existences. For these, you may want to consider killing off each character at least once in every such fight where possible, and know exactly which bosses don't give you anything (Ovan, tournament fights, and so forth) so you don't waste time or lose needed Morale with unnecessary deaths. Some other tips:

- In Arena battles, do not rely on your allies for anything. Assume you're going in alone to every fight, because without the quickness of items and the Arena's increase of Skill preperation times that aren't Lv.3 Arts or Skill Trigger attacks, any attempt at revival will practically guarantee death.

- If you plan on having a low level average, start looking for other sources for important items immediately that aren't GP-intensive. For example, Atoli always carries around 15 Smoke Screen, 10 Return Feather, and 5 Fairy's Orb in all three games. In Redemption, you will have a lot of chances to abuse her default inventory should you choose to put the bulk of your fighting force into Haseo himself. The best thing to do with Fairy's Orb, however, is to memorize the layout of the next area you're hitting instead of actually using the orbs (saving GP). For Return Feathers, think of how you would use them as shortcuts in a speed run and treat them as such. For example, when finding Melo Grunty in Sigma: Universal Ocean's Glide, using a Return Feather immediately after finding him is slightly faster than using the bike to go back to the Beast Statue Platform.

- If Haseo's level is your only concern, find a good Accessory-rich field or a two-floor Cloister dungeon with few enemies (preferably only a boss or one encounter) and raid it mercilessly for GP. Even if you forgo Indulgence, relieving yourself of inventory issues is worth it.

- For Redemption, use a Reminisce save in which you haven't placed in the Bike Missions.
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The Unoriginal White Sheet - http://masterzed.cavesofnarshe.com/
-Master ZED

Quick question then, I have all three games so I am planning on trying a Low Level Game later on today. My question is; on the low level game here all Non-Forced battles such as random ecounters and Extra Arena fights are to be avoided?

My question is; on the low level game here all Non-Forced battles such as random ecounters and Extra Arena fights are to be avoided?

If at all possible, yes. There's absolutely no benefit to fighting a partial battle. Other RPG's might let you steal items and such, but even the Demonic Mallet's reward is not immediate. Everything is awarded post-combat.

The only reason you would fight random encounters is if you cannot continue, and there are two points where you will have to fight it out. The job extension quests both require a minimum level and must be done for the story to proceed; the 2nd quest in Reminisce requires LV. 51 to start (you'll hit 52 afterward) and is the only one you should pay attention to if you want the lowest series-wide level finish. Doing a low level Rebirth run is more symbolic than anything else since you'll wind up gaining every potential level in either Reminisce or Rebirth's postgame anyway, but 21 is what you should wind up with after the first job extension if you decide to do it.

Unless you want the *absolute* lowest level possible, I would suggest you farm all of the GP your patience will allow in Rebirth so you don't have to worry about it ever again. You'll probably miss that level by, um... 1 as a result of that, since ideally you would use the forced battles prior to the Reminisce job extension and a few very low level monsters to take you to LV. 51.
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The Unoriginal White Sheet - http://masterzed.cavesofnarshe.com/
-Master ZED

As for the extend quest in vol 1 while you don't have to do it ASAP I believe eventually the game will still force you to complete the quest anyways.