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This page summarizes information for commonly used grind options in Free Enterprise. Some other occasionally used grinds during runs that aren't covered are CPU Orbs, Magus Sisters, Dark Imps, and either of the Guards Fights. Those are omitted because they too dependent on where those bosses are placed in a seed for a general guide, and also the strategies for them are fairly straightforward.  Various Conjurer/Sorcerer/Marion grinds are also omitted because they're rather too niche for intended purpose of this guide.

Each section will have a table with a high level summary of where the grind is, how to get into the fight, how much XP you can expect, and what you need/want for the grind. A longer write up of the fight itself, plus a section for why you'd choose a particular grind follow. For an idea of whether or not a particular grind will get you to Zeromus-ready levels, check out Milkode's [[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lkHY--4KtJR6TJRy7oKxJOrLI0Z-CsF5dlEkEcd5ykQ/edit#gid=0|Grind Calculator]].

''XP Per Instance'' is listed for non-summoning grinds (e.g. fights without a Searcher), and lists the XP gotten without any XP bonuses available in Free Enterprise.  In fights where Life glitches are possible, the value in parenthesis assumes just one life potion tossed on each available enemy, for example Gold Dragons are 60,000 (90,000).
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====== Siren Grinds ======
===== Yellow Dragons =====
^ Location ^ Finding the Grind ^ Important Parts ^ XP Per Instance ^
| Underground | Sirens | Dragon killing weapons, High single hit damage, Coffins, Stop/Hourglass | 34000 |

=== Strategy ===
To grind as fast as possible, you'll want to set your party up so the person who will make the attack goes first and that the character will very likely do 1800 damage in one attack. You'll also want to keep Sirens in the upper left corner of your inventory, so you don't have to move to select them in your item menu. You can also make great use of Artemis arrows with this grind, since your last arrow won't be up during it as long as you're one-shotting the dragons.

Early in a run, making use of a Coffin, Hourglass, or the Stop spell can get help get the first egg down.  If Palom only has Virus, you might need to Bluff once or twice to be able to one-shot the egg, depending on his equipment. Do not trust that an unbluffed Virus cast will kill the egg, even though it's possible.

[[https://imgur.com/a/xPdO1Nt|Here]] is an image of one of the specific places to summon the eggs.

[[yellow_d|Yellow Dragons stat sheet]]

=== Why This Grind? ===
Yellow dragons tend to be the fastest xp per minute, assuming you can one-shot them. The relative ease/speed you can start a grind also makes this an excellent choice for doing a small grind at various points in the game to get you a leg up on your next checks.  Getting a Palom to Quake (2 eggs with no other xp sources/xp bonus), or either Rosa or Porom to Bersk/Blink are really common quick grinds. Depending on your path to the underworld, doing 2-3 eggs should give you the levels to take on Dwarf Castle or the top of Lower Bab-il, and makes all the overworld checks, minus the Odin spot, trivial.

===== Warlocks =====
^ Location ^ Finding the Grind ^ Important Parts ^ XP Per Instance ^
| Lunar Subterrane | Sirens (B4), [[ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u3vlgjO2LJB3-XQntoQw8DzpXfQ-GxHZk_79DcQg8M8/edit|Step Manip]] | Mute/MuteBells, Mage killing weaponry | 51900 (86500) |

=== Strategy ===
With an RA1 character acting first, use a MuteBell or the mute spell to prevent the Warlocks from casting. Then attack with/berserk a melee character with a mage killing weapon (Rune axe, mute knife, mute arrow, Elven Bow).  

Warlocks are also susceptible to instant death attacks, Stop, Weak, and Size. Hourglasses are okay, but will still allow the Warlocks to get three Fire 2 casts off, so you'd be facing a decent amount of damage per fight.

[[warlock|Warlock stat sheet]]

=== Why This Grind? ===

The Mute status being a great way to make this grind safe, and it will still be applied after a Life2, this can be a very nice slingshot grind. Alternatively, if you don't berserk your attacker, you can often get multiple life potion tosses with enemy attack buffers, or by timing a Jump well. Mage killing weaponry is also easier to get in most seeds, and mutebells are likely to be in shops as long as Snoj is off.  

With the wide range of applicable status effects, you don't even need to have mage killing gear, or especially high levels to defeat the first set of warlocks.  Also, since they're just muted, you can often get multiple life potions off when a non berserked character is dealing what you know will be lethal damage. If you're feeling very fancy, you can land a life and a life 2 on the same Warlock kill to really maximize your Siren usage. 

One thing of note: when a Warlock is alone, she will start using physical attacks, so don't let your hp slip too much.

===== Gold Dragons =====
^ Location ^ Finding the Grind ^ Important Parts ^ XP Per Instance ^
| Lunar Subterrane, Cave Bahamut| Sirens (LST B3, B6; CaveBahamut 2, 3), [[ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u3vlgjO2LJB3-XQntoQw8DzpXfQ-GxHZk_79DcQg8M8/edit|Step Manip]] | Hourglasses, Weak, Dragon killing equipment | 60000 (90000) |

=== Strategy ===

Toss an hourglass as your first action, and if your party has members who will likely die from either a physical attack or the Blitz ability of the dragons, you can pause to see if you need to resurrect anyone before continuing on.  Berserking a character with dragon killing weaponry, preferably Kain with a Dragoon Spear, or anyone with a decent bow and Artemis Arrows is a great way to do the necessary damage. If you don't have any dragon killing gear, the Weak spell does the work for you as well.


[[king-ryu|Gold Dragon (King-Ryu) stat sheet]]
=== Why This Grind? ===

This grind has the most base XP available out of each Siren usage, and since there are three places on the moon where a Siren will summon the fight, it's far more accessible than the Warlock grind. It also requires less setup than either of the grinds in the Giant of Babil, so if you're only looking for a moderate amount of end game XP, or not slingshotting Rydia to Nuke, this is a great option.
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====== Searcher Grinds ======
For both of these grinds, the goal is to get all of your experience in one encounter. You can use either Milkode's [[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lkHY--4KtJR6TJRy7oKxJOrLI0Z-CsF5dlEkEcd5ykQ/edit#gid=0|Grind Calculator]] or Inven's [[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DChwazoDnE4XeLjF_s6vraNCV__om13wtVaq9zLghns/edit#gid=0|reference spreadsheet]] to know how many enemies to kill for your grind

===== Macgiant =====
^ Location ^ Finding the Grind ^ Important Parts ^
| Giant of Babil | Step Manip | Anti-giant/Machine weaponry. Blink or Cover |

=== Strategy ===

Get your defenses up, either with Blink/Illusions, or a Cecil who is covering most/all of the party. Zeus Gauntlets are a great defensive item for this fight, since they provide Giant resistance.  For offensive weaponry, you'll want to lean towards Ogre Axes, Thunder claws, Earth Hammers, or Charm Arrows with a good bow.  You'll also get extra damage from Poison Axes, Charm Claws, and Lit Arrows, or any other Hammer but those will all do less damage. Palom can also bluff up Virus to a good degree and really help out in the fight. It's not recommended to use lighting spells, since the Macgiant will counter with a Magnet, freezing one of your party for a long time.

Once you get going, it's ideal to try and kill the Macgiant in one round after it's summoned. Jump and Power can help out with that.

[[https://ff4kb.aexoden.com/tools/grind-finder/|Step Manip ]]

[[https://docs.google.com/document/d/13P1RM2ExMMHS9qbTyFN59AqecOWs5r2Yp2xgWCdUjMo/edit|Step Manip for Ecantrun]]

[[macgiant|Macgiant stat sheet]]


=== Why This Grind? ===

Generally, you'll use this grind when you have mostly a mid-range party, one or two characters to slingshot, no access to Weak or Sirens. 

===== D.Machin =====
^ Location ^ Finding the Grind ^ Important Parts ^
| Giant of Babil | Step Manip | Weak caster, sufficient MP regeneration |

=== Strategy ===

Put your weak caster in the center, to make sure they get the bonus accuracy from that slot.  Kill both of the Beamers, and then hit the Searcher with an attack, preferably one that does not deal much damage, and then cast Weak on the summoned D.Machin. Ideally, you'll know your party order well enough to have your Weak caster immediately follow the member who attacks the Searcher. That will reduce the amount of times the D.Machin can get a Flame attack off. If you keep good track of your Weak caster's mp, you can make this a really efficient way, both in resources and time, to get a party to Zeromus-ready levels. 

[[grind:giant_manip | Step Manip]], with links to a tutorial video and the Ecantrun version.

[[d.machin|D.Machin stat sheet]]\\
[[grind:dmachin | more How-To grind information]]

=== Why This Grind? ===

This is a great grind when you have a fairly early Darkness Crystal, access to the Weak spell, and a way to both keep your Weak caster's MP up, as well as heal effectively. Also, done correctly, all of the attacks you should see during the grind are based on each character's max HP, which means that this is a very easy grind to do with even low level characters. If you have mostly mages, the item use of a dancing dagger will do enough damage to kill the D.Machin post-weak.  Cid, Kain, and Cecil all have fairly easy access to fire resistance, too, so they're able to weather a lot of Flame attacks if they're wearing any of that gear, which will reduce your healing needs.  Also, Rydia has a couple of neat tricks up her sleeve: Sylph will do plenty of damage to the D.Machin, and will mostly heal your party, and Chocobo has the right spell delay for you to be able to get a couple of Life potions off for one D.Machin summon, which can speed up your grind.
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====== Other Grinds ======

===== Behemoths =====
^ Location ^ Finding the Grind ^ Important Parts ^ XP Per Instance ^
| Cave Bahamut | Trigger Tiles | Blink/Cover | 58700 |

=== Strategy ===
Have a speedy character for your anchor*, and either begin reflecting Nuke off of a StarVeil, or get a heavy physical hitter starting to swing. If you do any direct attacks, the Behemoth will counter with its own physical, so having Blink/Illusions handy is highly recommended. 

* If vanilla agility is on, make sure to take off any agility reducing gear on your highest priority Cecil.

[[behemoth|Behemoth stat sheet]]

=== Why This Grind? ===
If you only need a little XP, or are playing in a seed without ready access to Sirens, a Weak caster, the three trigger tiles in Cave Bahamut can be a good way to supplement your party's levels to get ready for Zeromus or some rude bosses.  Since they're very slow, putting a speedy character in the middle will greatly reduce the danger of the fight.

===== Trap Doors =====
^ Location ^ Finding the Grind ^ Important Parts ^ XP Per Instance ^
| Sealed Cave | Trigger Tiles | Wall or high damage | 31100 |


=== Strategy ===
By using Wall/StarVeil on the party member targeted by the Search, you'll be able to reflect the Disrupt spell back at the Trap Door and kill it.  Otherwise, they only have 5000 HP, so a well equipped party has a good chance of dealing damage fast enough to not lose any members. And a FuSoYa with Nuke should be able to do the job.  

You can also get a wall cast off on the target every time with the correct setup.  The recommended/reliable setup is to change your Battle Speed to 3, have someone who is RA1 in the top slot who will immediately attack, and then your Wall caster in the bottom slot. You should see the Search happen, be able to select Wall and the target, then have the physical attack happen (which will buffer a turn), and then your spell will go off before the Disrupt usage.  Having a full party helps with this a lot.  [[https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1086216532|A short tutorial video]]

[[trapdoor|TrapDoor stat sheet]]

=== Why This Grind? ===
If you get an early Magma key and Luca Key, this can be a nice way to jump-start your seed, provided you're able to make sure you get a StarVeil off (and you're sure you can buy more StarVeils later, if needed). 

As a way to finish getting levels for Zeromus, this can be useful for getting to 1200 HP on your characters, or in seeds where Sirens aren't available. This is generally a fallback sort of grind to get ready for the end game.

===== Reaction Grind =====
^ Location ^ Finding the Grind ^ Important Parts ^ XP Per Instance ^
| Lunar Surface | [[ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u3vlgjO2LJB3-XQntoQw8DzpXfQ-GxHZk_79DcQg8M8/edit|Step Manip]], Random Walking | Lit1 | 9960 or 23650|

=== Strategy ===
Cast a single-target Lit1 spell on a Grenade, which will cause its script to use Reaction to kill itself and all other enemies in the fight.  Because of how multi-targeting works in FFIV, you can't use a Thorrage or a multicast Lit spell to accomplish this. You cannot use an hourglass to stop the enemies, since that will also prevent the reaction from happening. (xp comes from two different enemy packs. Juclyote x2, Moon Cell x2, Grenade is worth 23650, and Grenade x2, Balloon x2 is worth 9960)

[[grenade| Grenade stat sheet]]

=== Why This Grind? ===
This is a good grind early to get some quick levels on your team if you have early moon access. It isn't a great way to get ready for Zeromus, though.
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