Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles: Tips to grind JP easier

You’re going to spend a lot of time grinding JP in Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles. Whether you simply want to unlock all the jobs, or are putting together an awesome, overpowered build for your party members, you need JP for that. In most cases, that means spending lots of time in battle, but you can make the time easier, that’s for sure. Perhaps, before you even start grinding, one of the important things is to figure out what you want your party to be.

A good example is that I run three Monk/Ninja based Melee characters with Squire powers, a Dancer, and a utility character that can be flexible when it comes to spellcasting (Arithmitician). Knowing that, I recruited generic NPCs that fit the stats I wanted, and grinded JP for them accordingly in Final Fantasy Tactics. These tips aren’t the only way to grind, just how I personally do it.

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Tips to grind Ramza and Generic NPCs in Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles

The most important thing you can do when grinding for JP in Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles is to make sure every single character in your party has Focus (Squire) and JP Boost (Squire). You can give one character the Ring of Aptitude instead, if you have it. It doesn’t stack with JP Boost, so don’t bother using both.

Having Focus means you can grind pretty much any character (Image via Square Enix)

If your only purpose is to get JP, I recommend a nice, easy map like Mandalia Plain. The terrain isn’t difficult, and there often aren’t a lot of foes. If you think it’s too crowded (too many Chocobos, for example), you can always select a party, start the map, and return to the World Map. That’s one of the many fantastic new quality-of-life features.

The reason I pick this map is that most enemies start pretty far away. You can have every character just immediately start getting JP by spamming Focus every turn, and building Physical Attack, while also getting Exp/JP. Then, continue the fight as normal, until you cripple one of the enemies. Ideally, it’ll run far away. Then, just keep using Focus until you have the JP you need for the time being.

As you get a little farther into Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles, you’ll unlock more Jobs, like Bard and Dancer to help you grind JP. Either one can make this experience a lot better. Dancer can reduce enemy Speed each turn, and Bards can increase allies Speed each turn. This just gives you more and more actions. I also recommend only staying on a battle map for as long as you need. That way you can swap Jobs around, and do whatever other things you need. Before you have these, if you have a particularly slow character, use Ramza's Yell skill a few times to increase their Speed.

Ramza's Yell and Steel really buff allies, to make grinding easier, while also benefitting himself with free JP (Image via Square Enix)

Grinding this way can also double-up as a way to increase your allies’ Faith and Brave. Ramza for example, eventually unlocks Steel, which increases a characters’ Brave by 5. For each 5 temporary Brave a character has, they receive one permanent Brave, and the same goes for Faith. Orators can do the same thing (though not at 100% chance like Ramza) with Praise for Brave and Preach for Faith. Just make sure not to go over 95 Faith, or that unit could permanently leave your party.

Another thing you can do in the early game, is, through the Monk Job, you can have a weak magical character melee someone in your own party, and then heal them both with Chakra. Make sure there’s no powerful counter-attack equipped, or you could be in for a bad time. There are no consequences for attacking your own party members, but just remember, permadeath is a thing in Final Fantasy Tactics.

If you’re trying to get JP for a job that has low Speed growth in Final Fantasy Tactics, or you simply don’t want to take into battle, bring that character to the Tavern and look for Errands to take part in. Sadly, Ramza, as well as unlockable characters, cannot do this. It’s a great way to get a few quick job levels without having to be in a fight, or unlock specific skills you need.

It takes characters like Orlandeau longer, but it's worth it for how overpowered they get (Image via Square Enix)

Another great way to farm JP in a fight is to get a map down to just one enemy, and use skills like Rend Speed (Knight) on that enemy (and Rend Power) to reduce the enemy’s Speed to 1. Now they react far less, and you can grind Focus at your leisure. This is also going to be your primary way of building up the skills on your secret unlockable characters.

Sadly, the kits of Agrias, Orlandeau, Cloud, and Beowulf don’t include Squire in Final Fantasy Tactics. They receive other unique classes instead. That means they don’t have Focus. Instead, swap their primary job to Knight, and unlock Rend Speed. You can then make that their secondary job, weaken an enemy and spam Break Speed on them. It’s tedious, but it’s the best option they have.

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Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles launches on September 30, 2025, and is truly a masterpiece. You can learn more about the revived genre-defining tactical RPG in our in-depth review.