Daily grind COTC
1Grinding for EXP in Octopath COTC.
This grind run was a festival of fleeing caits unfortunately. Last fight is a gem cait that didn't flee though.
Caits are realistically the main source of exp: getting influence to increase cait rate speeds up the process.
Lvl 4 chars get influence at level 65 and 74. So, I'm saving their upgrades to try and reach lvl 74 before anything else.
When a char hits lvl 65 I swap them out for another 4 (or a recent one that is low level).
Fights with 2 enemies only are somewhat not worth the time.
I don't bother trying to kill the 2 Chubby caits since the party is usually not fit for that if you are trying to level up everyone and not just your strongest chars.
Just summon multi-hit NPCs that break their shields to maximize the number of hits in the one cait that stays.
If the Cait with the gem appears (the 300k exp one), hit him with 3 or 4 hit skills without boosting turn 1 and summon an ally that doesn't break.
Breaking 6 shields is usually good enough.
If you have Heathcote (or another char with a priority move that breaks) make sure to leave only 1 shield and break him turn 2 with the priority move for a guaranteed kill.
This is probably worth it even if the priority char is maxed out since it increases the expected cait exp by 25% (ie, by them not fleeing).
Turn 2 we can already attack with boost x4 (or some x3) so do it and summon an ally that breaks if that can be a problem.
Turn 3 swap rows and boost all for x4 attacks + 3 hit ally that doesn't break if you want to save them for 2x chubbys.
Note the exp equipment: they speed up the grinding a lot. The problem is that they cost a lot of silver dust.