There is a quicker way of reaching level 99 for all characters.
Starting from about 60, this took me less than an hour.
You'll need one Pep Pip per battle from casino, quest rewards, crossbow completion, or mini medal exchange, put them on Sylvando. I recommend finding Prince Faris in his room in Gallopolis Castle, his quest is easy and gives 4 pep pips. Which should be enough to hit 70, and from then on they are replenished.
Main Abilites: Hero - Pep Up (Luminary), Erik - Critical Claim (Guile)
Two of these: Jade- Lightning Thrust (Spears), Serena - Thunder Thrust (Spears), Eight - Hatchet Man (Axes)
1. Get Rab Erik Sylvando Jade and into pep and swap them out. Have the Hero use Pep Up when done. ( about 5 minutes spamming defend)
2. Save your game!
3. Start a random battle anywhere with a party of Hero, Erik, Jade, Sylvando
4. Hero, Jade, Erik use Haulellujah for guaranteed drop + exp bonus (Jade is usually fastest)
5. Swap Erik to Rab, Hero Pep Up, Sylvando uses a Pep Pip on Jade.
6. Wait for the enemy Moves to conclude
7. Hero, Jade, Sylvando use Electro Light to change the battle into a fight with 3 Metals (flee and reload if this fails)
8. Swap Sylvando for Erik
9. Rab uses Pep to force sleep the Metals
10. Begin killing with critical abilities only
Every 10 levels the encounter changes
50: 3x Vicious Metal Slime: About 300k exp, Seed of Life from each
60: 2x Vicious Metal Slime, 1x Liquid Metal, About 350k exp, Happy Hat from the Liquid
70: 1x Vicious Metal King, 2x Liquid Metal, About 800k exp, Pep Pip from Metal King
At 70+ the Metal King returns the Pep Pip you use. Before 70 you'll need to rely on any Pep Pips you have from quest rewards or 125000 tokens in Casino.
Gain 4-5 levels per from 50-70, and like 7-8 from 70-99.
Credit for this method goes to the excellent google docs spreadsheet which you can find here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pGQGO9M_OLNstXbY45t1...#