Leveling-Up Demystified

Warning: This Content Contains Plot Spoliers. Please be aware of this before continuing.

This information is also not 100% applicable to the GBA (Final Fantasy IV Advance) or PSP (Final Fantasy IV Complete) versions of the game, although they use a very similar level up process. However this information is particularly not applicable to the DS version of Final Fantasy IV which introduced an entirely different and unique level up mechanism (particularly after level 70).

In the classic version of Final Fantasy IV (that is the SNES and PSX versions) there is a basic system for leveling the characters up.

The first thing you need to know is that there is hard level-up data for each of the 13 (fully) playable characters for each level from level 70 and below to their starting level. For reference the 13 playable characters are; Cecil Dark (separate and unique from Paladin), Cain, Rydia (child and teen - the game sees it as one character), Tellah, Gilbart, Rosa, Yang, Palom, Porom, Cecil Paladin (separate and unique from Dark Knight), Cid, Edge, and FuSoYa. Golbez and Anna do not have level-up data.

Each playable character also has a set of "start-up" statistics which sets their initial level, HP, MP, Vital Stats (Strength, Agility, Vitality, Wisdom, Spirit), and total Experience (points). The level-up data contains the next values for each of these at level-up, or in the case of experience, the points needed to achieve a level-up. Experience, HP, and MP in almost all cases approximate an exponential curve as they increase.

However the data are not simple.

Not all characters start with or gain MP. However the set values for HP and MP gained on level-up are lightly randomized; the hard coded value is the baseline value however there may be a few points more added at level-up than the base. Vital Statistics can be different for each level and they can also be negative, meaning some characters can and do actually loose points as they level up. However Experience, HP, and MP are never negative.

The most interesting thing is what happens to a character beyond level 70. First the value used to go from level 69 to 70 for HP, MP, and Experience is used over and over again until level 99 is reached. The gains are not linear however for HP and MP because of the positive randomization of the actual gain for each. The experience curve does become linear after level 70 but it still approximates the exponential curve. Vital Statistics are randomized among 8 different value combinations, not all of which are positive gains or desirable. In fact each character has a possible negative bonus for each stat. This means a character's vital statistics can vary wildly and in some cases all the gains made over the levels up to level 70 can be destroyed by leveling the character up all the way to level 99. Indeed some characters benefit by not being actively leveled up at all. We believe that the randomization of vitals was designed to improve replay value and to potentially handicap the "grind-happy" player who always aimed for level 99.

What this means is that only way to truly level up a character positively past level 70 is to monitor the next level value and save right before you believe the character will level-up. Then check the vital statistics after any post level 70 level-up and ensure they were positive and desirable. If not reset and level-up again, repeating until a good result is achieved.

Another consideration is shadow-party leveling. First, the shadow party is characters that were already in your party but have left your party to return later. The game places these character's statistics into a so-called "shadow party" and they gain an equal share of experience points after battles while out of the party. The characters the game does this with are; Cain after the destruction of Mist and after he steals the dark crystal, Tellah after Anna's demise, Rosa after she is abducted by Golbez, Rydia after being swallowed by Leviathan, and Yang after the shipwreck. This is why when those characters return to the party they are relatively on par with the rest of the group. However if you over-level past 70 while a character is still in shadow, like Cain before he returns for the final time after the giant of Bab-il is stopped, they may return above level 70 and it is completely random what kind of stat increases may have been made beyond your control. It is thus advisable only to level-up beyond level 70 the characters of the final party after the giant of Bab-il.

The level up data is only available for the levels after the original starting level. Therefore cheats that allow you to set a character's level are not beneficial. Starting Edge at level 1 instead of level 25 will not net you 24 more levels of bonus; there is no more data. You'd have to hack the game to re-curve characters that start at levels above level 1.

Specific Character Trends

Dark Knight Cecil

Cecil as a dark knight is fairly mediocre in terms of statistics. His maximum HP tops out around 5500 and he gains no MP. His experience curve is rather aggressive, requiring almost 10 million points to top up to level 99. The Dark Knight's vitals are interesting and average, at level 70 he has good STR, AGI, and VIT. However his wisdom is quite low and his spirit drops to 0 by level 30, there is never a case where it will increase. After level 70 the dark knight does have a fair chance of having quite powerful vital stats except for spirit which is always a null bonus of zero for all 8 possible random values.

Cain

Every time Cain joins and re-joins your party he is the same character to the game. Meaning if a masochist (or a cheater) leveled Cain up to level 99 at the beginning of the game he'd stay that way the whole time. Cain is a notch below Paladin Cecil in terms of total stats. Notably he gains enough Spirit points that suggest his data was configured for him to cast white magic.

Rydia

Rydia is also always the same character both as a child and as a teen, only her sprite, portrait and skills change when she "grows up". Over-leveling Rydia early on will expose high-level black magics because of this, however her Level-2 elemental spells are acquired when she rejoins as a teen so they can't be learned, but you can watch her learn her level 3 elemental spells sooner while still a child! Rydia has a lot of magic power, wisdom and MP specifically. However her STR, AGI, VIT and HP are all relatively low even at level 99.

Tellah

This is one of the characters you actually want to avoid leveling-up. Other than gaining precious few HP, Tellah has a number of pitfalls. He doesn't gain any positive vital statistics and over the levels his vitals will drop to lower levels than where he initially started. He never gains MP, ever. Why? The game's creators wanted Tellah to plausibly die after casting Meteo and the only condition for that to happen is if Tellah cast a spell which required more mana power than he had to actually cast. They also seemingly didn't want the player casting such a powerful spell that early in the game (although you can level Palom up so that he could but...). In any case since Meteo costs 99 MP, Tellah had to have something less than that for the storyline to work. Therefore his MP is frozen at 90. Only if you had access to a SomaDrop item could you increase his MP, and none are (or should be) available while he is in the party. It is worthy to note that Tellah could recover some of his vital stats after level 70 as the randomization does provide a vehicle for advantage, however Tellah's very aggressive EXP curve precludes that option for all but the most masochistic level-grinders. Tellah's HP remains less than 4000 even at level 99. Therefore, with only the short time he's available and the ability for other players to carry his weight (Rydia first, Palom / Porom second, and Yang, Cid, and Cecil are quite capable on their own the third time) Tellah should be viewed almost as an NPC who's along mostly for story purposes.

Gilbart

Everyone loves to hate Gilbart (or Edward if you must). He has some of the silliest skills and is a weak fighter...at least to begin with. Though Gilbart never gains enough Vitality to be a front line fighter (even with the best equipment available during his time with the team he'll still take damage quite copiously) he can become quite useful. Taking him into the mid twenties to the mid thirties and you'll find he has the strength and agility to hit pretty hard with his seemingly wimpy harp of all weapons, which best of all is a back-row compatible weapon so he can safely stay in the back row and still dish it out. His dreamer harp can put enemies to sleep or his charm harp can confuse enemies -- both quite useful for the rest of the party to clean up after him -- and with a decent AGI value he may just go first and hamstring stronger foes making them ripe for the adept blows from Cecil's dark sword. So leveling ol' Gilbart up actually makes a good deal of sense. Considering he'll have to face off one-on-one against that Sahagin in Kaipo after healing Rosa, and he has to man up and help Yang and Cecil defend Fabul, not having him run off the screen after every couple of hits is advantageous. That said over leveling him past 70 isn't necessary. He's only in the party a short time and anything above level 40 is icing on the cake, although level 40+ Gilbart is pretty fun; there's nothing the game can throw at him anymore for the time he's around.

Rosa

Rosa is pretty straightforward; she's got the fourth best HP of the final party, her vitals are better than Rydia but don't come close to Edge, however she's a much better physical fighter than Gilbart, Palom, or Porom. She learns all of her white magic pretty quickly (under level 40) other than Life2, Cure4, and Holy. There's nothing wrong with a managed level up to 99 and it's worth it as she'll end up with more than plenty MP and enough HP to not be dying too often. She's actually got pretty underutilized physical stats. If she were capable of equipping some daggers or even some of the less powerful swords she'd be a much more rounded character.

Yang

Yang is dangerous; he is easily one of the best all around characters in the game. His physical attacks are ridiculously powerful and his stats climb quickly to reflect this. At level 50 Yang can devastate with nearly 2000 points of damage per attack more if he's got an element advantage with his claws, Dark Cecil with the Deathbringer at level 50 is lucky to strike for 400-600 points at best. For Yang it gets better, if he's got his proper skills, his meditate boost attack can go for 4000+ damage. Taking him up to 99 and he'll consistently hit the damage cap just by attacking with his fists, and that's what it's all about...9999 damage. Unfortunately there's a bug, and it's not that you have to be judicious about his post level-70 vitals... His HP gain is bugged. The data drops to a 0-point gain at around level 60 and he is therefore handicapped at a max of around 6500 HP. This is corrected for the GBA game (of course, since he's hot swappable in that context) but remains a problem for the old classic versions. There's no way to correct this except by trying to get lots of the Silver Apple or Golden Apple items. Unfortunately Silver Apples are really the only thing available by winning them from the Liliths on Mt. Ordeals and you have to be playing FF4 not FF-II and that would take a lot of time. Only cheats or a proper hack to fix the game data would correct the problem.

Palom

Palom is an exceptional mage and his stats increase to prove it. He get's a strong amount of Wisdom and even in a worst case scenario retains it all the way up to level 99. His HP is relatively low but his physical vitals are decent enough that given a nice dagger he could defend himself if he runs out of MP. Over-leveling should be considered; he will learn all of the available black magic spells. Imagine fighting Milon or Kainazzo with Lit-3, Flare, or Quake available? It's possible.

Porom

Like her twin brother, Porom is an exceptional mage and can be as useful in the function as Rosa. Her Spirit stat will power all her white magic to powerful results. Her physical vitals are correctly low but she's the quintessential support mage in the tradition of the white-robed predecessor of Final Fantasy I. You should also consider over-leveling her as well. Cure 3 or 4 would really come in handy against Milon; actually casting Cure4 on Milon-Z is a death sentience for the fiend. For those of you aggressive grinders you can even get her to learn Holy which makes short work of just about everything you'll encounter while she's in the party, especially the undead riff-raf of Mt. Ordeals.

Paladin Cecil

Cecil truly is reborn on Mt. Ordeals, he's a new character starting at level 1 and has 98 fresh levels for you to grind out. His physical stats grow to intimidating levels and become quite huge if properly managed to level 99. His EXP curve is mid-line and since he's always in the party it's pretty easy to keep him leveling-up. He also has MP and Magic now, while his spell list is pretty short with Cure2, Life1, Exit, and Esuna being about the most useful don't expect much total MP even at level 99. His HP does break 9000 but won't hit 9999 without some silver or golden apples.

Cid

Cid is an interesting fellow and really benefits from a level up regimen. His HP and Vital stats will balloon quickly, his HP will definitely max at 9999 much sooner than level 99 even. He can use Hammers and Axes to deal death and destruction, however going that extra mile to grind him to high levels is somewhat arguable. Yes it makes him strong, but with him only really in the party for the Dark Elf debacle and the far-too-short Tower of Zot, there's really no benefit to busting him beyond level 70 for reasons other than bragging rights. Actually it should be noted that his great level up qualities and the fact that the game places him in the shadow party after he leaves at Dwarf Castle for really no reason hints at the fact he was supposed to return to the party, probably after Cain betrays you for a second time, however because Edge joins so quickly afterwords and FuSoYa accompanies you at one point in the interim made it unwieldy to add him back before Edge and drop him again before FuSoYa. It lends creedence to those who believe that the Axe weapons in the game were meant for Cid (or were replacements for hammers never used), that the underground was meant to be a "longer" area with more dungeons, and that he should have been in the party for the Giant of Bab-il since it's been pointed out it makes absolutely no sense that you face zero mechanical monsters while Cid is in the party and his equipments are designed to be powerful against such monsters.

Edge

Sometimes derided as a "poor man's Yang", Edge is quite the handy Ninja to have in the party. He has some interesting magical attacks (albeit far to few of them) and his toss and sneak skills have their uses. However as a physical fighter he falls below Cecil and Cain. His HP is also rather low and his MP is low too. His AGI stat shoots through the roof, but his other physical stats are pretty average. You'll want to do the managed ascent to level-99 so that he holds his own as a font line fighter against the garbage in the Lunar Subterrane.

FuSoYa

The big lunarian Mop is a pretty lukewarm character. Yes he comes with all the magic the game has to offer with a strong SPI and WIS power base, but he has low HP, a paltry amount of MP, and low physical vitals. His "Spirit Wave" skill (if available) is laughable. He gains little more than HP when you attempt to level him up, and an aggressive EXP curve sees to it that only the most aggressive grinders might attempt it. He won't gain 1 MP until after level 69, but will gain a larger pool if taken past level 70. Even at level 99 his HP remains below 4000. Given that he's only in the party for the one mission through the Bab-il Giant (or possibly your run-thru of Bahamut's Lair) it's very dubious whether you want to even focus on his levels at all. Recommended only for complet-ists who must see everyone at level 99 and/or masochistic grinders.